There are so many I know who are waking to another day of difficulty. Are you overwhelmed by looming threats? Are you facing what you can only describe as a flood? In the darkness of this anxious time, God still speaks. God still has a plan. The fact that you are walking with Him means God still has a future for you.
“The LORD then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’ And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.” (Genesis 7: 1-5)
Noah was 500 years old (5:32) when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. He was 600 years old when the floodwaters came (7:6), and because his son’s wives also entered the ark, we can presume something around a 50-100-year period that Noah was involved in building this massive spectacle of an ark. Can you imagine spending what must have been between 50 and 100 years building something you had never seen (the ark) to experience something that had never happened before (the rain)?
If that is not the example of obedience, then what is?
Well, maybe there are similar, smaller perhaps, but still powerful examples of obedience all around us.
I remember as a Pastor getting tired of hearing people tell me, “Pastor, I am believing for a testimony, it isn’t ready yet, I am just waiting for my healing, then I will tell the church on Sunday what God has done for me.” I decided that wasn’t helping my church grow in discipleship. So from that moment, I didn’t wait for the healing or the breakthrough to happen. I had people come to the front of the church to give their stories of having cancer but holding on to God, of going through redundancy but waiting on God, broken, unsolved stories of ordinary people walking with faith and obedience despite their world collapsing.
Noah stood alone in his generation, as we read in the last chapter; it was evil at its core, and he remained obedient to what God had called him to do. It is possible to hold on to God even when no one else is.
Maybe …
Taking a lower salary because the job aligns more with your gifting and values; staying in a difficult marriage when your best friend advises you to leave; adopting a child when you should be having more for yourself; starting that project that no one understands; forgiving someone who won’t care if you do or don’t; giving when you would rather be spending; maybe, just maybe this story is actually closer to your experience than you first realised.
There are times when you stand alone because you are trying to be obedient to God. You keep hammering the nails into the wood, even when people mock you, even when you cannot see one rain cloud.
After decades of your life carrying this attitude, you then hear God saying ‘Go’ or maybe the door opens, something shifts in your experience, a chapter turns, and you realise that the lonely walk of obedience has been worth it.
God gave Noah a week’s notice of the rain.
We can find ourselves in such an imminent time. It’s not today. But the moment you have been waiting for is soon. So, in this late hour, what do you need to do? Who do you need to speak to? Noah had time to warn the community around him one more time. He was ready now, but the final instructions were to gather seven pairs of every animal and bird.
If you had seven days, what would you do with them? The 50-100 years have gone by—a lifetime of walking with God. One week is left.
We are in the last days. Live right. Make good decisions. Do everything you can. The future is at stake. God has a plan and it is coming to pass.
Missions Paul 