Do you know what a wadi is? A wadi is an empty riverbed full of sand, specifically in the desert and is translated in scripture eleven times. Most of the time, it’s a completely safe place to be. But when a big rain comes and rushes into the desert, it causes flash floods that destroy everything in its path. Jesus taught a parable saying, “Anyone who hears these words of mine is like a man who built his house on the rock. The rains came down, the streams rose, but the house stood because it had its foundation on the rock. But anyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice, is like a man who built his house on a wadi.”

Very often animals or travelers who don’t know any better will stop and allow the animals to graze in the grass because at times the wadi has some life-giving water underneath. But it’s a dangerous place to be. For a man who has never been to the desert, he may say, “I’m going to build a home here on the wadi; it seems like a stable place.” But the truth is, when trouble comes, it’s coming for him.

Friend, that’s what it’s like when we build our lives on something other than the Bible; the Word of God that was given to us. Jesus promised us that if we build our lives around the Word of God, even when trouble and rain comes down, we’ll have a strong foundation. We often think that the foundation is Jesus Himself, and it is, but He says very plainly it’s His teachings!