And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. … And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Matthew 7:25; 27

Notice the description of the storm that hits both the wise man’s house and the foolish man’s house.

It is the same storm.

Contrary to the popular prosperity doctrine that permeates pulpits today, bad things happen to everybody including God’s people.

Why is that?

The biggest reason is that we live in a sin-cursed earth that is reeling under the weight of sin’s grip and consequences on all creation. Bad things happen because sin is still in the world. There may also be cases where God suffers tribulation to come into our lives to put our faith on trial. Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that bad things happen to everyone and it will continue to be that way until our Lord returns and takes us home!

Until that blessed time, we have a choice as to how we will prepare ourselves to live in this broken world. Will we listen to the word of God and follow Jesus? Or, will we hear the word of God, think its’ a good idea for other people or for when we get old and continue living like the world?

We will see in the next article the two possible outcomes. For now let’s be real about life:

The rain descends.

The floods come.

The winds blow.

Our lives take a beating.

How will you prepare?