June 25, 2026 // Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 7:21–29
Reflect on the Word //
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” my landlady said. “I have some bad news . . .”
I stopped short in the driveway and listened as she announced that she would be moving out of state in a few months and needed to end my lease on her basement apartment early. I didn’t begrudge her a new job, of course, but I did feel a keen sting of disappointment, followed closely by tearful anxiety.
It hadn’t even been nine months and I was hoping to stay there for at least another year: in that perfect space where the price was right and my commute was short and I lived within walking distance of the cutest independent bookstore. It had seemed like a small miracle when I found the place the previous summer, and now I wondered if I could trust the Lord to come through for me again.
It didn’t escape my notice when I prepared to write this devotion a little later that, in today’s Gospel, the Lord compares those who hear His word but don’t act on it to “a fool who has built his house on sand” (Matthew 7:26). On the other hand, those who do act on what the Lord has spoken have built their houses “solidly on rock” (Matthew 7:25).
I hear You, Lord, I thought with a smile and a shake of my head. The choice was clear: As I looked for a new literal house, would the house of my heart stand secure on the Lord’s promises? Would I act in accordance with God’s Word as revealed in Scripture—the persistent assurance that God is good and worthy of my trust? Or would I let doubt shatter what I knew to be true?
I don’t know what secret storms your heart is currently weathering, sister. But I do know this: if we place our trust in the Lord, not just in word but with an act of the will, we, too, will build our houses on solid rock. The Lord is good, and His love is the firmest foundation.
Relate to the Lord // “The Lord is good.” Do you believe this? What keeps you from believing this truth. Talk to the Lord about it.
