MaryEllen Montville

 “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede.” –Genesis 8:1

After God commanded Noah to build the Ark, instructing him precisely how to build it and providing him with every material needed, God then instructed him on how to stock the Ark: what to put in it and whom. Only then did Noah’s “new beginning” begin; only after God Himself had sealed Noah inside. Yet it had taken Noah between 55 and 100 years, scholars say, to build the Ark. Then, once God had sealed him in and the rains started in earnest, it took nearly another year, more, some say, before Noah’s feet touched dry ground again. In all that time, much like Father Abraham, Noah’s faith didn’t waver. He just kept building and waiting for God’s next…

So, did God’s “remembering” Noah imply somehow that God had forgotten him and those He’d entrusted Noah to care for—help save, all those months adrift atop the waters? Was Noah left out there, forgotten by God, floating along, upon something that, ’til then, neither the world nor Noah had ever seen?

As the Apostle Paul might say, “God forbid!”

And yet, when you’re out there, bobbing around in the proverbial floodwaters, if you will, “waiting on God,” it can, at times, feel as though God has forgotten you. Wouldn’t you agree?

Are you able to imagine how even righteous Noah may have felt had he dropped his guard and let his flesh speak?

I can. I’ve done it.

How I thank Jesus that, because of Him, because of a Love so merciful and complete, we get to choose to live by the faith Christ has afforded us, and not by feelings as tumultuous often, as the sea itself, tossing these fleshly vessels of ours this way and that, still…

But here’s the thing, my seafaring friend, God could never forget you! Never!

As with Noah, God is simply shifting you from what was: that time of trial and hardship, loss, times of testing, to a season of restoration—of new beginnings, literally!

So stay put until the one Who sealed you in opens the door to your fresh start, once again…

God hasn’t forgotten what He’s promised you, beloved…even if the waters seem to be taking forever to dry up, even if you feel as though you’ll never again feel dry ground beneath your feet. Even if what God is calling you to looks so big, so “out-there,” even your dearest friends—most beloved family members—just won’t get it. Truth be told, it’s taking all the faith you have to hold onto such a God-sized vision. “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” –Matthew 9:23-24

Remain faithful. Keep bobbing. Keep sending out the Dove, beloved—God’s Perfect timing will have the final say, certainly, not you. God will indeed bring to fruition the fullness of what feels to you like a too-big plan. When the Dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the Dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.” –Genesis 8:11-12

I’ll remind you here, disheartened one: you did not build the Ark on your own; God built it with you, for you, to save you, help restore what’s been lost—help bring about your new beginning—yet again. Every ounce of strength you needed—every supply necessary, even the opposition you’ve incurred, “the seemingly endless bobbing,” all of it, brought about by the Hand of God to strengthen you, deepen your spiritual roots, causing your faith in Him,  your knowledge of His faithfulness to you, to grow to a level that will support your next season. “And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 4:19

A level which, minus the flood, the waiting and bobbing, you’d never have reached—all this so that you might be drawn closer to Jesus—made to look more like Him, all the while being used by God to fulfill His good plan and purpose, for your own life, sure, but equally, even more perhaps, the lives of all those you’ll touch in Jesus name. “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].” –Romans 8:37

So no, beloved, God had not forgotten Noah, nor the covenant promise He’d made to him.

Within just a few short verses of today’s Scripture, we read of God’s fulfilling it. “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,’ I establish my covenant with you’: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” –Genesis 9:11;15-16

And since God is not a man that He can lie, beloved, and His Inerrant Word assures us He doesn’t play favorites, you can quite literally rest assured, if the seemingly “too-big” impossible plan, ministry, move, you fill in the blank, was in fact given to you by God, then God alone will bring it to fruition. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” –Philippians 1:6

Your job, beloved? Keep the faith. Keep trusting God—sending out the Dove until God opens the “Ark” and your feet touch the first-fruit soil of your new beginnings. I pray you won’t forget to praise Jesus for His unending faithfulness to you once He does that “too big,” impossible thing in your life. “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.” –Genesis 8:20

Do you know Jesus, friend? The Only True God, Jesus, who does what no other god, so-called, certainly no man, could ever do—save you, making you a new creation in Him. Jesus, who can make what looks impossible to man—not only possible—but make it actually happen! Sounds too big, right? Impossible almost. That God could take a jacked-up life and make it new? Not like new, but actually new. Yet Jesus does. I can promise you that because it’s His Word, and it’s what Jesus did with mine. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].” –2 Corinthians 5:17

God doesn’t play favorites, friend. He saved Noah, He saved me, and Jesus will save you, too, if, by faith, you sincerely ask Him. Invite Jesus into your life today and watch what He alone will do for you—and through you.

Because your salvation isn’t about you alone, it’s about those God has placed in your “Ark” with you, before you ever thought to answer His call on your life—and yes, it is God Who is calling you today. “For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” –Ephesians 2:10