Whose Part?
Do you ever wonder who’s waiting on who? If you are anything like me, then you often are asking the question, “God what are you wanting me to do right now”? I find myself in these tailspins of not knowing if I am waiting on God or He’s waiting on me. Or what part of this assignment am I responsible for?
I am using the story of Noah (Gen 7) because there are defining parts of who is responsible for what. God formed the plan and designed the ark. God decided those that got to be a part of the escape as well as the animals and their number. Noah built the ark according to God’s blueprint. Noah’s part took much longer than God’s part. Research shows that it took a minimum of 55 years or a maximum of 75 years to finish the project. I see no evidence in scripture where God was impatient or tapping His foot at the process. Nor do I get the impression that God changed His mind about the plan because it was taking too long.
There are some things we are responsible for, but God is responsible for making them happen. He told Noah that he was to take seven pairs of clean animals and their mates along with two pairs of unclean animals and their mates. God, however, handled the logistics. Scripture says those animals came to Noah and entered two by two. Do we actually give God enough credit to handle the parts that are impossible for us? Or do we angst over how, what, and why, only getting in His way and showing Him signs of distrust?
The most interesting part of this story to me is the part after all the work was completed. Verse 16 “and the Lord shut him in”. Noah’s manual labor was finished, however his patience and trust were being tested on a whole different level inside the ark that God closed the door tight on.
Day after day, night after night of rain, hearing nothing from God, waiting and wondering, keeping each nightfall marked for another completed day. Think about where your patience and trust in God would be in this moment. Most of us might be doing alright during the forty days and forty nights because we would have an end in sight. Noah had a numbered amount of days for the rain, but what about the hundred and fifty that wasn’t discussed prior, plus the months and days it took for the waters to decrease? At these places in our walk with God, the ones we have no end to, no extra instruction, and we feel like He has shut the door to our room and walked off, is where the rubber meets the road in our patience, trust, and faith.
Going Beyond
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