Learning from your past experiences is a great thing to do. But using your past experiences as a gauge for what God can do in the future is a horrible idea.
Often a smart thing to do is not so smart when it comes to God. In fact, it puts a lid on God and becomes the limiting factor in what God can do in your life.
As an example, let’s talk about Noah and the ark. God asked Noah to build an ark in order to preserve himself, his family and some animals.
Based on past experiences this is what Noah had to go off of.
- God had never wiped everyone off the earth before.
- This level of flooding had never been experienced before.
- Nobody had ever built an ark of that size.
If I were Noah, I’d be thinking to myself God is crazy. Nothing of this magnitude has ever been done before. And right there, our realism, the wisdom of past experiences will fail us.
It fails us because we’ve limited what God can do.What God has not done in your life does not mean he can’t or won’t.
Don’t put a lid on him by looking at your past experiences and have them dictate your level of faith in God.
If you’re believing God for a restored marriage, don’t look at how many times you’ve tried to reconcile and failed. Don’t look at the repeated unwillingness of your spouse to go to counseling. If you’re believing God for a job, don’t look at how many resumes you’ve submitted and not heard back from.
What if Noah were the Realistic Reggie type?
Based on past experience, he would have built a little life boat instead of an ark (if that even). Flood? Hah, never seen one before. Giant ark? Have you ever seen me pick up a hammer?
What has God called you to? What is his vision for your life? What are you believing for?
Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Do you want God to do far more abundantly than all you can ask or think in a life boat or an ark big enough to preserve every living creature on earth?
Create space for God. Give him room to fill.
Go. Build an “ark” for God.
And share with everyone in the comments how you’re going to do it. I welcome all tips/insight/wisdom cause it’s definitely a lot easier said than done. ;)
3 replies on “How Big is Your Noah’s Ark?”
If you ever read a financial paper, you read something like this “The market hates uncertainty”. War, famine, economic problems, etc. I mean, really…how many people here would put their money in the bank if there’s a realistically high chance of it disappearing? I’d say 99.9% of the human population wouldn’t.
Congratulations!! By becoming a Close Servant of God (hard to find), you just volunteered to be in that 0.1%. You will now turn your life from certainty to absolute uncertainty from your point of view. You will forget what a bank is and now have your money in the side of the road hoping it won’t disappear. What Noah did was the equivalent of someone today putting ALL their retirement money to buy wood and build a boat.
Yes, that retirement money. That nest egg which 100% of financial advisers say to save, keep, watch for, etc. That nest egg which causes riots in countries around the world if it disappears and is the cause of the collapse of many different companies and governments around the world. That precious nest egg, you willingly, give up to do something insane as to build a boat.
Insane, no certainty…well..except ONE that’s out of our mortal realm but 99.9% of people wouldn’t do what Noah did since that certainty isn’t within their control.
Actually, that 99.9% is too big. Let’s say the pre-flood population was around 100,000. 0.1% is 10,000 people which is way more then that ark can hold.
I’m guessing we’re looking at a bit more that 99.9999%. So basically a bit less that .0001% of the world would probably be that close to God. There needs to be a few more 9’s if the population was bigger and less 9’s if it was smaller.
So, in short, replace 99.9% with 99.9999%.
Being a disciple of Christ will always put us in that minority. But we gladly do it knowing God makes up the difference. ;)