The Missing Tabletop

READ: PSALM 127:1-2; MATTHEW 7:24-29

At a youth group party, my friends and I gathered for a night of worship and fun. Afterwards, we piled paper plates with snack food and headed outside to eat. We squeezed ourselves around an outdoor table. In the dark, though, we didn’t notice the patio table that we thought held a clear glass tabletop actually held no top at all. That “table” was simply a metal frame with metal chairs situated around it.

Before we could stop him, my friend Chris set down his plate full of food on what he assumed was the table. As it turned out, there was nothing there to offer support. We laughed at the mishap, but Chris was understandably annoyed and headed back to the kitchen for another serving of snacks. Although Chris could easily replace the food he lost, the food that had been dropped couldn’t be recovered. It was just trash at that point.

The foundations we look to for support truly matter—not just with a paper plate at a party but with our lives as well. Putting our trust in Jesus—and believing that He died to pay the penalty for our sins and then rose again to give us eternal life—means starting fresh as a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Beginning a relationship with God through Jesus sets us up for a whole new life. So, what are we going to do with that life?

We can haphazardly build our lives on what seems to offer a strong support for our futures—like the approval of others, physical strength, or higher education. But will that framework hold us up when we need a sturdy place to land? Or do those pursuits just place us on shifting sand? Only Jesus offers the rock-solid foundation we need to weather life’s storms and stand firm. • Allison Wilson Lee

• What does it mean to build our lives on Jesus as our foundation? What choices are involved in that? What short-term sacrifices might we have to make to gain long-term peace and joy by building our lives on Jesus? And why is it so important to remember God’s love, especially when life gets hard? (Psalm 63:3; Romans 8:18, 31-39)

• Throughout our lives, we’ll continue to discover many ways we haven’t built our lives on Jesus. But He has mercy on us. He wants to forgive us and help us move forward. Who are trusted Christians who can help you build your life on Jesus, notice and repent of sins you may not even have been aware of, and humbly rely on Jesus’s forgiveness and wisdom?

Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Psalm 127:1 (NIV)