Luke 7:46-49
The surface will not suffice.
It never has. It only convinces us for a while.
Jesus tells a story where everything that can be seen looks fine. A house stands. Work is finished. Life appears settled. But the defining work happened out of sight-beneath the surface, where no one applauds and no one rushes. One builder dug until he reached something that could hold him. The other stopped when the surface seemed like enough.
That difference matters more than we think.
We live in a world skilled at the surface. Success without submission is applauded. Ministry without marrow is rewarded. Faith without faithfulness is normalized. Things can look alive, active, and even fruitful-while remaining dangerously shallow. Sand holds shape for a season. It supports weight until pressure arrives. It gives the illusion of strength without ever offering endurance.
Jesus names this gently but firmly. Hearing His words is not the same as building on them. Activity is not the same as obedience. Proximity to truth is not the same as submission to it. Depth requires something surface-level faith resists: slowness, resistance, cost.
Ministry without marrow is busy but brittle. It produces motion without formation, output without depth. It can impress people and still fail to endure storms. Faith without faithfulness believes the right things but withholds control. It listens but does not yield. It builds, but only as deep as comfort allows.
Storms do not create these failures. They reveal them. When pressure comes-and it always does-what has been hidden is finally named. The ground speaks. The foundation answers.
This is not a call to build something impressive. It is an invitation to dig. To let obedience reach beneath habit and preference. To trust that the unseen work of submission is not wasted, even when it slows visible progress. God does His most enduring work underground, long before anything stands tall.
The surface will not suffice.
But what is founded on Him will.
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father,
Draw us deeper than appearance and activity. Rescue us from faithless faith and shallow surface. Give us courage to dig where it is hard, to submit where it costs, and to surrender where we would rather stay in control. Form marrow in our ministry and depth in our faith, so that when storms come, what You have built in us will endure. In Jesus’ name, amen.
