I read an email entitled, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Noah’s Ark”:
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Don’t miss the boat.
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Don’t forget that we’re all in the same boat.
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Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
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Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.
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Speed isn’t always an advantage; the snails were on board with the cheetahs.
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Remember the woodpeckers inside are a larger threat than the storm outside.
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Remember that the ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic was built by professionals.
There’s some truth to those but there are also three foundational truths learned from Noah:
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God chooses to use people to carry out His assignments.
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God delights in using ordinary people in extraordinary ways.
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God will use you if you are use-able to Him.
So, the question is: How are we use-able to God? Let me give you three ways:
1. WALK WITH GOD (EVEN IF NO ONE ELSE DOES)
Genesis 6:5 states, “The LORD saw that wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” But Genesis 6:8-9 says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD….“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.”
There was a noticeable difference between what Noah believed and how he behaved from others in his generation. The same should be true of as well. In order to be used by God, you’ve got to be set apart for God. You have to be willing to swim upstream, to love God and not this world, and to die to self. z
2. OBEY GOD (EVEN IF YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT)
Genesis 6:22 states, “Noah did all that God commanded him.”
God’s commands probably didn’t make much sense to Noah. Rain? A flood? Animals? A boat the size of 1.5 football fields long and 9 standard rooms high?
The key to obedience is committing to do whatever God asks you to do BEFORE He tells you what it is. It’s a blank check that you’ve already signed! It’s putting your “yes” on the table before you even know what you’ll be asked. It’s obeying God one step at a time. Once you obey that, God will give you another assignment.
3. TRUST GOD (EVEN IF YOU CAN’T SEE HIM WORKING)
Hebrews 11:7 says, “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.” For many, long years, Noah trusted God. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year…Noah continued to trust God. The truth is that we live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Charles Spurgeon once said this about God: “When you can’t trace His hand, you can always trust His heart.”
Let me encourage you to watch this short video for a powerful illustration of how we can continue to walk in faith, one step at a time.
Let me encourage us to be use-able to God (like the ordinary guy Noah was).
Perhaps you’ll want to pray this prayer:
“God, do what You need to do in me so that You can do what You want to do through me.”