Obedience

Crazy Obedience
Read Genesis 4-6
 
Genesis 6:21-22 “You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
 
LOOKING to the future can be very uncertain. There are many ways our lives can quickly change from our expected pathway. The future may even be more difficult to see if you clearly hear God calling you to do something entirely new in your life. In fact, God may direct us into something so new and different, our response is a fearful, “Not me, Lord.”
    Do you think Noah was afraid? Such an enormous task! Noah was 500 years old, and God told him to build an ark over 450 feet long! On this ark will be two of every living creature and the 8 people of Noah’s family. Yes, the easy thing to do would certainly be, “No! I won’t do it.”
    But where would Noah go? For the remaining years of his life, Noah, who “walked with God” (verse 9b)  would have been walking alone. “No, God.” Is saying, “You are not by God. I follow my own voice. I don’t see your power, Lord. I have no idea why you want me to do such a thing.”
    That’s what God too often hears from mankind’s sinful nature. Our spirits oppose God’s commands, and we end up walking alone. Such conflict in Noah’s life – and in our own – would have been much more difficult than building an ark. You can’t run from God and win. He knows where you are. He knows where you are going. Just ask Jonah. (Jonah 1-4)
    Noah, though, was a righteous man blameless among the people of his time (verse 9a). He received God’s command and faithfully, righteously obeyed. In his labor, Noah would spiritually rest in God’s care. He certainly could not see how this enormous task would be done. Walking with God, though, he began working with God. God gave him the physical and mental tools to build. Noah’s faithful labor would open his eyes to see God more clearly. He learned he could believe the Lord of Heaven and Earth to direct his path to the journey’s end.
    Noah’s first task would be to pick up a hammer. What is your first thing to answer God’s call with, “Yes, Lord.”
 
Good to Know: God calls, equips and empowers you to his work.