God Remembers

The other day my devotions took me to Genenis 6 & 7. Noah and the flood. It's a pretty familar passage so sometimes it becomes easy to just read through it and then think, "That's a good story," or "What am I going to learn new in this passage, I've read it a hundred times?" I know not very spiritual of me. But hey, I'm just being honest. So I read through it and was just getting ready to start praying and my eyes floated down to the first verse of chapter 8. It starts with, "But God remembered Noah." Those four little words really made me stop and think about what I had just read. Why was it so important to Noah that God remembered him. I mean, think about it. At that particular moment there were only 8 people alive on the planet. So of course God remembered Noah. But then I started to think about all that Noah had gone through. He had been serving the Lord by building a boat for the last 100 years or so. You know he had to have endured a lot during that time. Gen. 6:5 says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The people around him probably weren't very encouraging. I imagine it was much worse than just talking badly about him or making fun of him. But Noah pressed on. He endured and eventually the rain came just as the Lord had said it would. His family and all the animals climbed into the ark and were safe from the flood. God had spared him and his family. So why was it so important that God remembered him.

Maybe it was because now Noah was in that waiting period. He had been working and serving for so long that this just waiting was a little tough. At this point they were just floating around with not a lot of work and serving that needed to be done. You can clean the boat just so many times in one day, if you know what I mean. There wasn't some big project to do for the Lord and Noah was probably beginning to wonder, "Am I going to be on this boat forever, Lord?" Have you ever been there? Been really busy doing lots of things for the Lord and then a time of just having to wait comes along. It may be that you have just fallen into a routine with your serving and you begin to wonder. Is this all I am going to get to do? It's been 150 days Lord? When's all this water going to dry up?

"But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided." The waiting was over. Change was coming. But Noah had to go through the waiting period before the change could come. I have been there. Wondering, ok Lord, what's next? and then not hearing anything right away. Then I start to wonder, Lord have you forgotten about me down here, "floating on this water?" Those are the times, when I am quiet, that He reminds me. "I remember you; be patient, the winds will come and dry up this water. But know, I have not forgotten you."

So if you are in a time of waiting for the winds to come and dry up the waters, be encouraged. God remembers.