Read today’s texts first: Genesis 6-8; Luke 3
- Living in a microwave-popcorn, instant-pudding world, we’ve lost perspective on true patience & faithfulness.
- We are a generation of the spiritually A.D.H.D.
Noah was 500 years old (5:32) when the Lord decided he had passed the faithfulness test. He obviously knew it would take a while yet for Noah to finish the ark, because He numbered man’s time left on earth at 120 years (6:3). Noah finished ahead of schedule in only 100 years and was ready for the rain when he turned 600 (7:6). Bill Cosby described this eon of confusion well: “rain, sure God – what’s rain!” It’s hard to imagine building a 450 ft. ark for 100 years without knowing why or worse yet, what’s rain, what’s a flood, and what’s an ark! Then there’s the nosy neighbours asking the same questions and poor Noah still not knowing all the answers.
I’m sure the same doubts swirled around the prophecies of the Messiah, from Isaiah (Luke 3:4-6) to John the Baptist, with all the scoffers in between. Yet, you can see the generations of faithful believers, who believed without knowing everything, leading up to the moment Jesus arrived on the scene to bring sense to it all (23-38).
With examples like this, how can we get discouraged if we haven’t heard from God in a week! Living in a microwave-popcorn instant-pudding world, we’ve lost perspective on true patience and faithfulness. We are a generation of the spiritually A.D.H.D., easily distracted from the narrow path of obedience if there aren’t road signs every few feet.
“Lord, may I have the patience of Job, or better yet, Noah, today, this week, and the rest of my life (even if I live to 100!) to do what You ask, even if I don’t fully understand what I’m doing or why, and even if the people around me think I’m all wet. I want to press on knowing that someday the gumboot may be on the other foot!”
No comments:
Post a Comment