We Got One Ridiculously Mighty God

Most of you have probably heard of the story of Noah and how it rained for forty days and forty nights and the whole world was covered in water for 150 days. So you might have a lot of preconceptions about Noah and the Flood. But before you read today’s passage, I would like to remind you of some words from Francis Chan that I heard at LIFE 2010. During one of the evening seminars, he simply told us to think about God’s creation and all the detail that God put into creation. It went something like this:
Our God is the God who invented laughter. When we are happy or think something is funny, that is our natural response. Now who would have thought of something like laughter? It’s so original. And how about eating? God could have simply made us to absorb our food like amoebas. But no, instead, he created us to ingest our food, using our taste buds to absorb all the goodness of the food. And how about reproduction? God could have just as easily had us reproduce simply by holding hands.

Even though those weren’t his exact words, it was definitely something along those lines. And I think the important thing is the message that he was trying to convey: God is amazing, inventive, mind-blowing; you name any good thing, and God probably is exactly that. So as you read today, I hope that you will focus on one thing in particular: God’s power.

Read Genesis 7:11-24

Wow right? I think that if we truly stopped and got rid of all our preconceptions about Noah and what we think we know about him we would be in awe of the power that is so mightily demonstrated by God in this passage. Just look at the words the author uses: “on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.” Now if that doesn’t stimulate your imagination regarding the magnitude of the flooding, stop and think about the worst flooding you’ve ever seen or experienced in your life. Now raise that to the billionth power and it’s probably approximately what the earth looked like at the end of the first day of THE 150 day Flood. Yeah, pretty intense right?

Yet, I think the even more amazing fact is that God, despite the magnitude of the flood he created, was still in charge. It says that once Noah went into the ark with his family and all the animals, “the Lord shut him in.” This implies that God was protecting Noah the entire time, even when the rest of the world was going crazy! And yet, this is exactly what God does for us in our own lives. He protects us from things far beyond our strength to handle; He is our daily Ark.

This year has already been a tremendous challenge with both my parents in Taiwan and Elaine and I basically having to share all the house duties: cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc. In addition, I have all my schoolwork (AP’s included), college apps, and various other extracurricular activities. Yet, I believe that God is calling me to depend on His strength in this coming year, to cling to Him, just as the only way Noah could have survived the Flood was to cling to the Ark God had commanded him to make. So how is God calling you to trust in His strength today? This week? This month or even this year? Are you still trying to survive in this world on your own strength, constantly struggling to remain above the surface of the water? Because I know that God wants you in His Ark; He wants you to depend on His strength alone. So my prayer for you today is that you will learn to let go, to trust God with everything, and to truly live on His strength and power alone.