built his house upon a rock

In the past, while traveling from town to town, I was never much of a sight seer.  In fact, most of the time, I was asleep within 15 minutes after I left the house. But since Bill and I have started spending so much of our time on the road because of our ministry, I am learning to look outside the motor home windows and enjoy the beautiful scenery that our Lord created.  Last month as we were traveling through the mountains in Arkansas, this lonely cedar tree standing high on a rock caught my attention.  It brought to my memory the song, “The Wise Man Built His House.”
When my children were young, I loved teaching them to sing songs and perform hand motions.  This song was always one of our favorite. I have been teaching this song to my children and grandchildren for years and I never knew that I was leaving out part of the song.  I never even knew there was a verse that says “the blessings come down when prayers go up.” What a shame to think that I left out perhaps the most important verse.  And why did I never know this verse existed?
Perhaps whoever taught me the song, didn’t know the verse.  Or maybe, whoever taught me didn’t like the hand motions for that particular verse.  It is even possible that I was taught the verse and just forgot it.  But regardless of the reason, I have not been singing the verse.
I wonder how many times this same thing happens with the word of God?  Do we only practice those verses that are familiar to us?  Do we leave out verses that we don’t really like?  Do we just learn from listening to others and assume they are telling it correctly?  Do we tend to forget verses, because we haven’t heard them in a long a time?
I discovered the last verse of this song, when I researched the song online so that I could copy and paste the words into my story. Little did I know that it would change the whole direction of my story.  I believe the same theory holds true for the Bible.  We cannot fully know and understand it until we spend time reading and researching it.  We can’t be satisfied with just hearing what other people want us to hear.  We must examine it for ourselves, so that we can be as the scripture describes Titus 1:9, “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.”
I was blessed with God fearing parents who believed in daily bible reading and prayer time.  My dad read the bible to us daily during our family devotion time. I attended Sunday School regularly and started learning bible verses at an early age.  During my teenage years, I read the bible through.  As an adult, I have taught young children and youth in Sunday School and Discipleship Training classes.  But regardless of my past experiences, I am continuously discovering verses that it seems like I have never read before.  I am amazed at how God unveils new meaning to me daily as I yearn to learn more. So instead of simply relying on others to tell us what we need to know, we need to spend time in God’s word. We need to search his Word for answers to our many problems.  And then, we also need to spend time in prayer.  Just as the song suggests, as the prayers go up, the blessings will come down.
This is Nana Nancy, Let Jesus be YOUR guide, as you enjoy YOUR ride!
(Below is a copy of the song just in case you’ve never heard it.)
The Wise Man Built His House
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rain came tumbling down
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the wise man’s house stood firm.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rain came tumbling down
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the foolish man’s house went “splat!” [clap hands once]
So, build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
And the blessings will come down
Oh, the blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayer go up
So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.