2 Chronicles 25-27
John 16
“The LORD regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled….But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.” Genesis 6:6, 8
Our walk with God in obedience is used by Him to preserve and restore humanity back to its intended purpose. How do we know this to be true? In the Old Testament, Noah’s faith actually preserved the human race. In Genesis 6:17-18, God tells Noah: “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.” Can we imagine just how wicked the world needed to be for God to kill everyone with the exception of 8 people—Noah’s family?
Noah stood out because he acted differently compared to the rest of humanity. Another way of understanding this is to visualize the crowds walking one way and Noah walking the other way. It is not easy to walk in a different direction from the crowd. When the entire culture is going in one direction and is convinced that that is the right path, it takes a life deeply rooted in God to walk in a different direction and go against the grain of what everybody thinks is acceptable. Noah found favour with God because he was a righteous man and walked faithfully with God, which means his worship was rooted in the right object. Moreover, what we see in the story of Noah is that it is better to be a friend of God and rejected by the world than to be a friend of the world and rejected by God.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). What we see in the life of the apostles is that their walk with Jesus actually puts them in harm’s way; in fact, many of them were martyred. It is not easy to hold an unpopular position while holding to the truths of Scripture about holy living. Even if it seems like the whole world is walking one way, it does not mean that we need to follow it.
May we walk faithfully with God, like Noah did, even though we are going against the grain of the world that we live in.
Dear God, help me to walk faithfully with You, even when it is hard to go against the grain of the world. Like Noah, I want to find favour in Your eyes. Thank You, Lord.
John 16
“The LORD regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled….But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.” Genesis 6:6, 8
Our walk with God in obedience is used by Him to preserve and restore humanity back to its intended purpose. How do we know this to be true? In the Old Testament, Noah’s faith actually preserved the human race. In Genesis 6:17-18, God tells Noah: “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.” Can we imagine just how wicked the world needed to be for God to kill everyone with the exception of 8 people—Noah’s family?
Noah stood out because he acted differently compared to the rest of humanity. Another way of understanding this is to visualize the crowds walking one way and Noah walking the other way. It is not easy to walk in a different direction from the crowd. When the entire culture is going in one direction and is convinced that that is the right path, it takes a life deeply rooted in God to walk in a different direction and go against the grain of what everybody thinks is acceptable. Noah found favour with God because he was a righteous man and walked faithfully with God, which means his worship was rooted in the right object. Moreover, what we see in the story of Noah is that it is better to be a friend of God and rejected by the world than to be a friend of the world and rejected by God.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). What we see in the life of the apostles is that their walk with Jesus actually puts them in harm’s way; in fact, many of them were martyred. It is not easy to hold an unpopular position while holding to the truths of Scripture about holy living. Even if it seems like the whole world is walking one way, it does not mean that we need to follow it.
May we walk faithfully with God, like Noah did, even though we are going against the grain of the world that we live in.
Dear God, help me to walk faithfully with You, even when it is hard to go against the grain of the world. Like Noah, I want to find favour in Your eyes. Thank You, Lord.
← Older Post Newer Post →