Friday the 9th

Hebrews 11: ⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

 

There are many stories of faith that can be found in the Bible, but Noah’s story always stands out. The guy built an ark! Why? Because God told him to. Period paragraph…..next subject!

 

That is faith, hard core, God loving, unwavering faith. When I think of Noah, I always think….who do I know that would build an ark? Would I be willing? We are not talking about a 5 year or even ten year project. We are not talking about a project that you have to spend a few hours on each day….no , we are talking about a labor in faith that lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 years. If we were to take Noah’s age into account, it would be like us working on a project for about 20 years (I will use the 20 year number for perspective). Now that being said, would you build an ark? Right out in your front yard, because God told you to? I think of the ridicule that Noah must of endured (you know his neighbors had to think he was crazy) Everyday for what we would think of as 20 years Noah got up and worked on that ark……How many of us have worked on ANYTHING for 25 years? I think the faith that Noah had in God is often overlooked. We think , “oh yeah, Noah, the guy that built an ark, and saved his family and the animals” but we forget the time that Noah put in working for God on the front end. Now we know that Noah was a good man, Genesis tells us he walked with God. He was also the one person that God could find righteous in a wicked world. But we also know Noah was not perfect. In short, Noah was not much different than you and me. He was a common man who loved God, in a time when not many did. So what was it that made Noah so spectacular? His faith! His faith put him out there everyday tirelessly working on what God needed him to do. He was focused on God, not the world. What did Noah get for this service? Life! Not just for him, but his family as well. Paul tells us that things like Noah, and the Israelites in the wilderness, happened so that we might learn from them. What do we learn? To fear the Lord? Sure, one might take that away, but what I see is the love God has for those who follow Him. When you hear of these things you might only hear what happened to those that fell away, but I urge you, do not miss the importance of what happened to those who had faith in God…… they were given life.  Now God may not be asking you to build an ark, but what is He asking you to build today? He may not be asking you to work on one specific project for a fifth of your life, but He is asking you to commit 100% of that life to Him! So will you? Will you build the ark that the Lord needs you to? Will you follow with faith in your heart, and walk with God, or will you allow the taunts, and the ridicule of the world to draw you away form your ark building? It is through faith that we will be given life, and it by faith that we must live!

 

 

God Bless,

Brian