Relief!

Genesis  9

Oh, So Thankful!

I hate going to the dentist. I don’t know what it is! Maybe it is the scraping or the picking or just that my mouth has to be open for an extended amount of time. I get so anxious about the trip and then I cannot wait until I am done with that place and do not have to see it for a few more months. Has there ever been anything that you had to endure that you could not wait for it to be over? Maybe it was a surgery or maybe having to tell someone some bad news?

In our continuation of the Genesis Noah finally gets off this big, smelly boat. Remember he was on this boat for over a year. I have been on a cruise before that lasted 15 days and by the 10th day I was itching to get off and I was not even around stinky animals.Noah gets off with his family and the first thing he does was build an altar and sacrifice to God in thanks for keeping him and his family alive. After a long trip on a confined boat what would you do? Because Noah was righteous and God saved Noah and his family there is a covenant that God makes with him. A covenant is like a binding contract that a king would make with a subject. Today we have contracts between two or more people that states what they are agreeing on. The contract that God makes with Noah is, “Never again will I destroy the earth with a flood.” The sign is a rainbow as his promise. The rainbow, which sometimes is abused, shows that God desired for his word to be true and that he would never go back on it. What he said to Noah is something you can count on. God never goes back on his word. Today we have the Bible which shows how God keeps his promises to us. When we read the Bible we see that God loves us, he cares for us, he will never leave us, he is faithful to us, and we see that he has a plan for our lives. God loves his creation and he is gracious and patient with us as well. His love never ends, and that is God’s unconditional love. We soon will see that God has a greater plan for creation as it points to Jesus Christ. I encourage you as you read through Genesis ask the question does this point to Christ and how? 

FUTURE THOUGHTS:

• Do you thank God everyday for giving you life?
• Do you thank God everyday for creating you in his image?
• Do you thank God for his grace and mercy    everyday?
• Do you thank God for Jesus Christ who is our ark?
• In what ways do you see God’s promises trough his word?
• As soon as Noah was off the boat he thanked God. Think of a time that you were maybe rescued or relieved of something and you made sure and thanked God right away.