Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6:22)
Trust the process.
Coaches all over the country tell their parents and their athletes to trust the process. But what is the process? The process is the work you put in, how you do it, and how often you do it.
But what drives the process? Your character drives the process. Your character is who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you do it.
Your character (who you are) drives the process (what you do), and the process drives the results.
But being great is hard work, and not many people have the character or the drive to do what it takes to be great. That is why it is important to surround yourself with people who have the same goals and character that you do. I always advise my athletes to have different sets of friends. Have your sports friends who have the same athletic goals and work ethic as you. Have your school friends who have the same academic goals as you. Then, have your other friends who you connect with on a different level.
It’s important to surround yourself with people who will help you live the life you want to live and achieve the things you want to achieve. It is equally important to know who you are and what you want to do when you aren’t surrounded by people who have the same hopes, goals, and dreams as you.
How do you keep your character and stick to the process when you have bad influences around you? You have to have faith. Faith is the belief that something good is going to happen to you and through you, especially when you can’t see it, and I don’t know if anybody has ever had as much faith as Noah in the Bible.
In Genesis 6, God saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord’s heart was so deeply troubled that He regretted that he had made the humans on earth. The Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:5-7)
But God saw that one man, Noah was righteous and blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. (Genesis 6:9)
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” (Genesis 6:13)
God then told Noah to build an ark for himself, his family, and for two of all living creatures. God told him that he was going to bring a great flood that would destroy the earth, and everything in it and on it will perish, except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark.
Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
(Genesis 6:22)
Imagine you are Noah and God tells you to build an Ark because a flood is coming. Some historians say that this might have been the first time it had ever rained, and here he is building an Ark that takes years and years to finish while waiting for the rain to suddenly come out of nowhere. That had to have taken a lot of faith to do so. Imagine how his friends, families, and neighbors must have felt. Imagine what they must have said to him. But still, Noah did what he was told; Noah was faithful, and because he was, we are all saved.
God is a redeemer. We are imperfect, but He is always there for us. The Garden, The Flood, and The Cross are three examples of how God uses our sins to show us His love for us. In The Garden, Adam and Eve ate the apple, putting a curse on us forever, but God still took the time to clothe us. After The Flood, God told Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply on the earth (Genesis 8:17). At The Cross, God made the ultimate sacrifice, sending His son to die for us all so that we may have life, and have it in abundance to the full, till it overflows (John 10:10).
Noah listened to God and did what he was supposed to do even when it didn’t make sense. His character led him to stick to the process that God told him to do, and Noah was prepared for the flood because of it. It took years and years for Noah to build the ark and for the flood to come, but Noah didn’t give up. He just kept going, with faith, trusting that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
You have goals, and there are certain steps that you must follow to reach and achieve those goals. There will be distractions, obstacles, and barriers on your path. If your character is strong enough, you can stick to the process and do what you set out to do.
THIS WEEK
1 - What is one thing that you want to accomplish this week?
2 - What biggest barrier will keep you from accomplishing that goal?
3 - What can you do to beat that barrier?
4 - Who can you go to or lean on to help overcome that barrier?
For a Google doc version of this devo, Click Here: Week 4 - The Flood
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