My Bible study this morning led me to the Genesis account of Noah. How many times have I read that story?? Probably more than I can count, especially when I figure in all the times I heard it in Sunday school and vacation Bible school as a child.
This time, however, a single, simple line jumped out at me, Genesis 6:22. "Noah did everything just as God commanded him."
That's pretty incredible. Have you seen the dimensions of that ark? It was HUGE, and it certainly must have created quite a spectacle. Can you imagine the sneers and jeers that Noah must have endured? But yet, he "did everything just as God commanded him."
And that's exactly why God chose him for the task. Genesis 6 says that out of everyone on the planet, God looked with favor on Noah alone because Noah walked with God. There wasn't anything else particularly special or outstanding about Noah. He was just a normal guy who chose to live his faith rather than the ways of the evil culture of his day. Yet, look what God accomplished through Noah, and his willingness to do everything "just as God commanded him."
Am I willing to serve God? Absolutely, with pleasure. But over and over I catch myself questioning "why are we doing this?" or "why are we doing it this way?" or "why don't we do it this way?" When God gives me a mission my tendency is to get all excited and fired up about it and go running off half-cocked to carry it out. Last Spring I had myself and my family pretty well convinced I would be heading off to Seminary because God had told me to preach the Word. Yes, I spent months wrestling with it and praying over it, but in the back of my mind I believe I had already hatched my plan. Get it? I said MY plan.
God had other ideas, though, and made that very clear to me through another verse I had read over and over and memorized years earlier. This time though, I truly heard it. Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Hearing it that time brought me to my knees with the humbling realization that God really was in charge, the man with the plan, and it was HIS plan we would be carrying out, in HIS way. I can't even describe the relief I immediately felt in that moment as I surrendered all MY plans to him, and promised to wait on him to fulfill his plans for me.
Since that time (a mere 9 months ago), my back has gone out, my leg has swelled up, I had half my thyroid removed for a pre-cancerous tumor, the left side of my body turned numb and tingly and I discovered I have MS. But I trust that through every hardship God is working HIS plan, and I take great comfort in the fact that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according his purpose." (Romans 8:29)
Do I want to do great things for God? You bet I do, and as a righteous man who walked with God I bet Noah did, too. But it's really about God doing great things, and if he chooses to somehow use me to accomplish his plans, my prayer is that I will be willing and able to follow the example of Noah in doing everything "just as God commanded him."
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