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Thursday July 12, 2016

Living on the East Coast of the United States, it would stand to reason that most people plan for hurricane season since hurricanes are common in this region of the country. Hurricane season happens each year between the months of June and November. However, it never fails that when the season strikes and a hurricane warning is issued that one gets to see how many people failed to plan ahead. The same is true concerning our lives; we tend to live in the moment and not plan for the future. This is particularly true for those who call themselves followers of Jesus.

Approximately 1,050 years ago, God created man and entrusted to him Lordship over all the earth. However, when God considered mankind he saw that his intentions, plans, and actions were continually towards evil. Mankind being God’s prized creation had broken His heart and so he decided to erase all living beings from the face of the earth. However. God’s love for mankind was so strong that He could not bring Himself to eradicate all of mankind. Therefore, God decided to show favor to a man called Noah and extended also His grace to Noah’s family.

Genesis 6: 9-14 NIV

This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

For approximately 140 years, Noah dedicated himself to building an ark in the middle of the desert; this was something entirely crazy to everyone who witnessed it. For starters it had never rained on the earth; the earth was irrigated by water that sprung up from within it. Secondly there was no major body of water anywhere near Noah. Nonetheless, Noah planned ahead for something that had never before happened on earth. Noah, believing God and believing in what God told him, took to the task of building the ark. Most of you already know how the story ended. One day it began to rain, Noah and his family and animals of all kinds in pairs entered the ark and were saved from the flood.

Are you just living in the moment or are you planning ahead? What is your financial plan? Can you show me the financial ark you are building? What is your health plan? I am asking you if the people around you can see how you are planning for your old age? What is your plan for your marriage, your children, and your parents? More importantly, are you planning ahead for the day you go to meet your creator? Is there an ark that people can witness you building?

To walk in Noah’s shoes is to believe God is who He says He is and that He will do precisely what He has said He will do. To walk in Noah’s shoes is to plan ahead.