We may do our best on some level to hold them at bay by providing securities of various kinds around ourselves, but we cannot ultimately keep testing or pain from happening to us in this life. When it comes, we will discover whether the foundation of the house we have built has been laid upon the rock. That is much more difficult, of course, than just finding some easy, flat place on which to erect a building. But when the test comes, it is discovered to be worth every effort. There are three issues I would like us to consider in Jesus' words here.
Hearing is the first issue.
And the third issue is the requirement that we will be tested. Hearing the words of Jesus We live in a house that has a somewhat circular layout due to the way it has been added onto and changed over the years. And it has always seemed to me that noise gathers volume as it circulates around our house. Maybe there will be a stereo playing in one bedroom, a television on in another room, and the dishwasher running in the kitchen, and the din just seems to build. You can be saying perfectly useful things to someone in conversation, and their ears can work just fine, but very little communication takes place unless you can deal with the noise.