Community Baptist News
If I Were Noah...
Dec 09, 2009 | by Pastor Mark French
Maybe you aren’t tempted to worry about “how everything will get done” but that is this pastor’s temptation at times. If I were Noah I would have had enough worries to give me a number of nervous breakdowns. It staggers my mind when I think about all Noah could have been anxious about. He was to build a huge ship that was to house two of every living, breathing creature on the earth, and the future of mankind and animal life depended on the success of this endeavor. And it had to be completed on schedule. Talk about potential stress and pressure…
Nervous Breakdown #1
It is going to start raining before I get this boat built and the human race will all be destroyed, and it will be my fault. 21st century translation: The timetable of the events in my life is just not working out for the best. God’s answer: Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” We are to simply trust the Lord’s timing in life situations, and not worry that His schedule will not be right.
Nervous Breakdown #2
I don’t believe that I saw the grasshoppers get on the ark and it’s my fault that we lost an entire species of grasshoppers for eternity. 21st century translation: It’s all up to me. God’s answer: Matthew 11:29, 30 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me…and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” It is not my yoke; it is God’s yoke. I simply obey and leave the results to Him.
Nervous Breakdown #3
Now that all the animals have left the ark, how can I be sure that each animal stays alive long enough to reproduce? There is only a pair of each of the animals, and the odds that one will die before reproducing is quite high. 21st century translation: See nervous breakdown #2.
We are so often tempted to worry and try to carry burdens that God never intended us to carry. May we be learning to wait on Him, pull His easy yoke, and carry His light burden.