Genesis 8:1-19 | Trust: Waiting on God’s Plan
When Katie and I first got married, we had the plan all figured out! Katie had two years left in college, so I had talked with her manager at Macaroni Grill, and we were both going to work as servers there for those two years. She would finish college, and then we would head off to seminary so I could pursue my desire to be in full-time ministry. It was a great plan! Our manager had agreed we would always be able to work the same shifts, so we would always have time off together. Katie had already worked there for a year or more, so we had a good idea of the kinds of tips and money we would be making and were confident everything would work out well financially.
We got married on August 4, went on our honeymoon, and came back ready to jump into this plan.
But there was the answering machine (yep, good old days, physical answering machine). Literally seventeen messages. That was odd—I couldn’t remember a time I had more than one or two messages. But maybe this was married life now, we were so in demand that people were leaving us messages left and right.
All seventeen messages were from the same person, the principal at Cole Valley Christian School. They had a third-grade teacher who had quit at the last minute. The messages started cordially (Hi, I’ve heard you have a teaching certificate, and I was wondering if you were interested in teaching this year?) and progressed to an increasingly frank, somewhat desperate version (Can you please just teach for a month or two to help us buy more time?) Katie and I prayed about it. This wasn’t the plan. It was sadly NOT going to work out as well to teach at a Christian private school, as it would have to be a waiter. But it seemed this might please God and be something we should do. So, I took the job.
We did not know it, but that moment marked the beginning of a 13-year journey in which God consistently taught us that he had HIS plan and would make sure it came to pass. Even when it didn’t look like what we expected. Even when it looked somewhat impossible that the plan would come to pass. Exactly what we talked about last week with Noah. And we learned a LOT more about God through that process as well!
Now,I think we did have the plan right in its most basic form. We were going to go to seminary at some point. God just didn’t let us know EXACTLY how that would happen!
In my second year of teaching, we prayed and thought that God was giving us permission to leave teaching and go to seminary. I talked to my principal in early December (I wanted to give them MORE than enough time to find a replacement this time!) and gave my notice that I would not be returning the next year, and began applying to seminaries.
But God…!
I didn’t know it, but my family’s business needed some help. Literally one week after I quit, my dad approached me and asked the unthinkable: Would I come to work with him? I won’t go into all the details of why that question was so unexpected and unbelievable. But, again, we prayed and again felt God was calling us to stay and help. Again and again, God had his plan and would make sure it happened in his way and in his timing, whether I knew it or not.
Two years after working with my dad and our family business, we had a little one-year-old Hannah. We talked about going to seminary, and God started showing us the answer in a new way. Every time we talked about the idea of seminary, Katie cried (you can laugh; she is okay with me telling this story). The idea of being away from family and friends with young children was too much to think of at this point. And that was totally fair. So, we decided to stay, and I started building our software company.
Child number two (Gabe), a little over a year later. Should we go to seminary? Crying. Nope. Businesses, houses, chickens, lay ministry. Life goes on!
Child number three (Abigail), child number four (Gideon). Should we go to seminary? Crying. Nope. New house, bike riding, family trips. God’s plan takes its path.
Child number five (Hosea). I didn’t ask as quickly this time! Hosea was a little older than one when we had the conversation about seminary again. I was an elder in our church. We had a thriving business. We had just remodeled our house. We weren’t living as though we expected to leave, but it still seemed like this was the plan God wanted for us at some point. So, we talked again. This time, no crying. No crying! I cannot tell you how fast I bought tickets for us to go and visit some cities and see where God might be calling us to go to seminary!
It was 13 years to the day that God showed us that we did know the plan; it just didn’t happen in the way we expected. On our anniversary, 13 years after thinking we knew the plan and then coming back from our honeymoon and hearing those voicemails, we drove out of our church parking lot after the service with two cars, two cats, five children, and headed to seminary!
Patience With God’s Plan
I am sure many of you have this type of story. A story where you thought you knew exactly what God wanted for your life, and you weren’t wrong…you just didn’t know the timing! Maybe you are still sitting in that season right now, wondering if you are really hearing God correctly and waiting for his timing. And that’s the hard part.
I think this is an aspect of the flood narrative we often miss. As a kid, I often talked about Noah and the 40 days of the flood. I don’t know about you, but I often imagined how hard it must have been to be on the ark for 40 days. That is forever, especially when you are a kid! 40 days, 40 nights of rain.
But that’s not the whole story. I bet almost none of us, when hearing for the first time that God was going to flood the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, thought “Wow, I wonder how long THAT will take to dry out?!”
The part of the plan that we didn’t think about. The part of the plan that included waiting. I wonder if Noah thought about it. As far as we know, and as written, Noah only knew the flood was coming and that the rains and waters would take forty days to cover the entire earth. He might have said: “Surely, if God was going to miraculously flood the earth in forty days, then he surely could dry it quickly.” But God didn’t.
If some of you are scanning back through the story wondering how long it really was, you might look at the beginning and notice this phrase:
At the end of 150 days, the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
But that is just the ark running aground against the mountain. Notice what it says next:
And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
Again, these 150 days were not when the ark could potentially be opened. It took another three months until you could even see the tips of the mountains up above the water. Still, not much of a life if you got out of the ark. Small rock outcroppings do not make good homes.
Genesis is shockingly accurate about this event, unlike many other events that are not recorded. Not even Jesus’s life is recorded this clearly with dates. I think that means we are supposed to notice the time he was in the ark, particularly. The flood starts, and we are told exactly how old Noah is. Genesis seven tells us:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11 ESV
And then we are told here in Genesis eight:
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.”
Genesis 8:13–16 ESV
Six hundred years, two months, seventeen days until six hundred and one years, two months, twenty-seven days. About one year, ten days (370 days)—that is how long Noah was on the ark. And let’s pause to remember. This was one year, ten days confined to a place the size of a five-story building, one and a half football fields long, half a football field wide. This was one year, ten days with 1700 to 6000 animals. This was one year, ten days of cleaning, feeding, and living with these animals in an enclosed space, bobbing up and down on the water until the last two months. This was not a one-year ten-day Disney Carnival cruise! This was maybe one of the hardest experiences of Noah’s life.
Today, amid the flood narrative, I think we run into another picture of part of God’s plan for humanity: Patience. We have talked about this already in Genesis. Every time we see the phrase “And so-and-so begat so-and-so; they lived 700 years and then died,” we are meant to see that God’s plan is moving forward, but God’s plan is taking much more time than we may have thought. Surely, Adam and Eve, after Abel is killed, wonder if God’s plan is going to happen in their lifetime. It doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean God’s plan isn’t true or that he isn’t working it out.
This morning in Genesis 8, I think we are meant to consider how we are to have
Patience with God’s Plan
And patience with God’s plan starts with what we talked about last week. We start by seeing and realizing that:
God Has a Plan, and He Will Make It Happen
…Even If The Plan May Sound Crazy (Unbelievable)!
So patience with God’s plan means:
He Will Make It Happen (Review)
But I think we also need to learn from Noah what we see this week:
He Remembers YOU
It’s Okay to Test God’s Plan (sometimes)
As always, we start with the truth of God’s plan for all of us, but it is good to remember that God is a personal God. Those last two are very personal. While God will ensure he will complete HIS plan, which includes you, God also remembers YOU. You and your unique life, your unique situation, your struggles and concerns. And it is okay to test the plan. Not in every way, and not with just any attitude. But there are ways to honestly test what God might be doing and be willing to see if you should stay the course, maybe you misunderstood the plan, or maybe even that God is finally bringing the plan to fruition. God did not leave us in the dark. And then, we want to ask a very simple but important question:
Patience with God’s Plan
He Will Make It Happen (Last Week)
God Remembers YOU
It’s Okay to Test God’s Plan (Sometimes)
What Am I to Do in the Meantime?
While God is working out his plan in my life—his plan for salvation and his specific plan for me to grow with him—does God even tell me what to do in the meantime, even if I am asking and testing my next steps fairly?
God Remembers You
Last week, we looked at how God specifically made his plan for the flood come about for Noah and the entire earth. We talked about all the ways he provided wood, animals, and even closed the door so Noah might travel through the flood to safety on the other side. How God was planning to save Noah.
We didn’t dwell on it much, but that promise is true for us as well. God promises he will make sure that his plan to save you, that his plan to provide for you, that his plan to protect you will ultimately come true. God is thinking specifically about YOU!
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Many of us have heard that verse from Jeremiah 29. It was given to Israel as a promise and hope for the future after God brought them out of exile. The verse continues:
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Jeremiah 29:11–14 ESV
God’s promise was that even when it seemed like God had abandoned his people, he hadn’t. He would eventually, one day, bring his people back to himself when they call upon him. For some Jewish people, this was true in their lifetimes. Some of them saw the answer to God’s promise, but it did not happen immediately. However, the exile took about 50-70 years, depending on how you counted. Likely most of the generation who caused the problem resulting in exile, like those who wandered in the wilderness, died in captivity.
So how can it be true? How can it be said that God will bring his people out and back to himself, even if some of them have died? Because it IS TRUE in the ultimate sense!
Sometimes, you and I think too much about five, ten, or even forty years. Even this lifetime. Peter reminds us:
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:8–9 ESV
God is purposefully taking his time with his plan, so that many people might come to saving knowledge of Jesus and walk with God forever. Even if that means you and I need to wait a while. Even a whole lifetime. Had God completed his plan with Abel as the chosen son, none of us would be here. None of us would have had the opportunity to walk with God forever on the new earth and the new heavens.
God’s promises that he will take care of us, that he will bring us back to himself, are true because, from an eternal perspective, that is GUARANTEED for God’s children. That is exactly the perspective Peter is thinking about. Peter continues later on in chapter three and says:
But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:13 ESV
The real promised life is what is to come—the eternity forward that we will spend with our God, our King, our Savior, walking face-to-face on the new earth! This is exactly what those in the prosperity gospel movement, the name-it-and-claim-it movement, all miss. They think God’s promises must all come today, in this lifetime. Maybe some will, maybe they won’t. But for the God for whom a day is like a thousand years, they will come quickly…maybe just not as quickly as WE would like. They will happen, just maybe not here on THIS earth. We are promised a life with God, a life without pain, a life without any need. But it is only assured, then, there, in the new heavens and the new earth. Not always here. Here, we see the need for patience.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
Colossians 3:12–13 ESV
Or as the Psalmist says:
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait [are patient] for the LORD shall inherit the land.
Psalm 37:7–9 ESV
The call to patience is to remember that God is still working! He has his plan, and he will make it happen, even if we don’t see it immediately! Even if it is 13 years, five kids, and two cats later! Even if it takes a lifetime. But God does see YOU! This is exactly what Simeon was excited about when he finally saw the Christ-child:
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen the salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.
Luke 2:29–32 ESV
Patience with God’s Plan
He Will Make It Happen (Last Week)
He Remembers YOU
Patience with God’s plan is really the entire story of Scripture. God is sharing with us how, through many people, many sins, and many ways, He has kept his promises, and HE himself has come to save us. I am so thankful for how many times God repeats themes in his dealings with us. I don’t know about you, but I am quick to forget to be patient and trust God’s plans. I forget that God is mostly concerned with saving all his people, including me.
And yet, at times, that can seem like a trite answer. If you are Noah, after forty days and forty nights of flood and animals on the ark, you may not be so sure how much more patience you can have just because you are being saved through the flood. I have to imagine mopping up giraffe and elephant mess from seasickness may wear on you a bit! All joking aside, I wonder if we downplay how hard those forty days, then sixty days, then 100 days must have been. I know that sounds odd, but I think we often think the same way. Even if God’s plan for us in this life is amazing, we still may lose patience.
It seems it must have been hard for Noah when we see how this passage starts:
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.
Now, don’t read that as though God forgot about Noah! It isn’t as if God started the flood, let things go for the forty days, and then went, “Whoops, forgot about Noah over there! I hope he is okay. That must not be too fun!” Rather, this idea of remembering in Scripture is the idea of calling to mind in a special and saving way. God knew what he had asked of Noah, and after he unleashed the waters of the flood, he very purposefully turned to Noah and his work to save him.
And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days, the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
God knew Noah’s particular problem (the flood and being on an ark with thousands of animals), and he took specific action to help Noah.
Patience with God’s Plan
He Will Make It Happen
He Remembers YOU
God remembers you too! God is constantly looking on you, knowing you, and caring for you in every situation you are in as part of his saving work in your life. Everything that happens in your life is purposeful to draw you closer to God. As Hanani states:
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
2 Chronicles 16:9 ESV
Or to go back to 1 Peter:
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.
1 Peter 3:12 ESV
I know it may not seem this way when we are in a difficult season. When things are hard, we may despair and wonder why God is not caring for us. That is the cry of Jesus on the cross. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 22, which Jesus quotes:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
Psalm 22:1–2 ESV
Yet, in quoting this, Jesus expects we all know where the Psalmist goes next:
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame…
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him.
Psalm 22:3–5; 23–24 ESV
Even if it may sound trite to hear that God has a plan and will make sure you only get good no matter what, we are also told that God knows YOU—each of YOU—intimately. He knows the hairs of your head, and he will care for you more than the sparrows or the flowers of the field, as Jesus says in Luke 12:7. He knows when you sit and when you rise. He knows your thoughts (Psalm 139:2).
[You] are acquainted with all my ways.
Psalm 139:3 ESV
God’s promise that he has good plans for you is not just a generic promise or a platitude. He knows YOU, and he has good plans for YOU! Good plans are fully in the gospel and the hope of a future with him, but also good plans for today.
I think Peter has given much thought to the flood, Noah, waiting, and having patience with God. A lot of what he writes lines up with the larger story of patience throughout Scripture. I wonder if that is part of the character we are to see in the impatient Peter throughout the gospels. The Peter who cuts off the priest’s servant’s ear. The Peter who boldly proclaims he will never forsake Jesus. Patience may have been one of his life’s lessons—to find patience with God’s plan. In 1 Peter 1, he says this:
In this [the hope of salvation] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV
Main Street, no less than Noah, God looks upon you and has a plan specifically for you. He sees you and knows you, and he is guiding you to your next steps. Have faith in his plan for your life, especially when you look at his plans and how he ensures they unfold throughout history.
And as Peter says, what we have today and what God is working in us today is nothing less than something more precious than gold. Today, God is working primarily on our faith. A faith that comes with patience. I think the metaphor and image of Noah on the ark are meant to remind us of the waiting and patience we are to have with God and his entire plan of salvation. This patience is part of our faith just as it was part of Noah’s faith:
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:25 ESV
God has a plan that he is bringing to fruition through his people. God has a plan that specifically includes you. Most importantly, to strengthen your faith. The most important plan God could ever have is his plan to save us and to secure and strengthen our faith that we might walk with him forevermore. That is the plan we are meant to focus on most.
Testing God’s Plans
Patience with God’s Plan
He Will Make It Happen (Last Week)
He Remembers YOU
It’s Okay to Test God’s Plan
But what about the specifics? What about the day-to-day questions about our path that we all have? What do you do when you aren’t sure what you should do next in a practical way? It seems, from Noah and others, that it is okay to test THAT kind of plan. That is what Noah does next:
At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand, took her, and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
Noah wants to know if it is time to go out. Not whether God is good. Not whether God loves him. Not whether God will save him (he has done that). Can he leave yet? That is a very practical question for Noah’s life. So Noah starts with a raven. A raven is a bird that nests in the trees and scavenges food from dead animals. That is a good start, fitting to his situation and providing him with good information. It seems that the raven went out and came back to the ark several times, until the waters were dry enough for it to stop and stay in the trees. That was a great first test. It was a good way to see if the waters were moving and to make sure that God was moving the plan forward towards a dry earth where Noah could come out.
For you and me, maybe that is asking friends what they think about the plan we have. Maybe it is writing it out carefully. If it is a new job, maybe we should look at job boards to see if there are any new opportunities we could pursue. Maybe it is visiting the city we think God might be calling us to before we sell our house and quit!
In seeing that things have moved forward, Noah goes to step two. He sends out a dove. A dove is a bird that lives on the ground. This was a very practical test. It’s like sending out applications to see if anyone bites on your resume and skills. It’s like staying in a city for a week to see if you really like the climate and atmosphere. It’s like the second, third, and tenth dates! The first was fun and full of butterflies, but is there really a future that can be sustained here?
If you haven’t seen an olive tree, they are quite short compared to many other trees. At their tallest, they are about 20 feet. And they tend to prefer drier land. An olive leaf not only symbolizes peace and hope here, but also a practical sign that things have really dried out quite a bit, and the dove was able to rest long enough on the ground to find this shoot!
Testing the plans and path God has for you isn’t always wrong. Gideon does something similar when he puts out the fleece and asks God to make the fleece wet one night and the grass dry, and the other night the fleece dry and the grass wet. Jesus, when encouraging his disciples to go out and witness, told them to look for a person of peace in each city and, if they found one, to stay there and share the gospel. If not, move on. Practical testing does not seem to frustrate God, even if it is sometimes a concession to our weak faith and understanding.
Yet we must be careful! Often, testing is described in Scripture as something we shouldn’t do because we rarely have the right heart! We are often testing God because we are frustrated. We are often testing God because we want him to make things good for us as a sign that he loves us. We are testing him because we doubt he loves us and is working to save us. Israel complains this way in the wilderness and wants water, even after God has provided for them repeatedly. King Ahaz refuses to test whether or not God will protect him and Israel. Jesus refuses Satan’s temptation to doubt the Father, take things into his own hands, and turn rocks into bread.
The wrong kind of testing always seems to come when we doubt what we are to see in Noah, the flood, and every other story in Scripture: God IS for us. God WILL provide for us. God WILL protect us. We should not test that. But to test whether or not we understand the next steps rightly, to test whether we are headed in the right direction THROUGH our trust in God…that seems okay. Are we really supposed to give away half our possessions right now, like Gideon gave up half his army? Is God really calling us to this next job and city? The disciples test such actions when they go out to evangelize. The apostles do it when they try to discern next steps and where to go next. Testing God’s next steps for us is different than testing God’s overall goodness and provision for us.
And we have it better than many of God’s saints—we have his Holy Spirit to guide us. And as Paul says to the Galatians:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16 ESV
This passage speaks to the Spirit's ability to guide us away from sin, but it is no less true of his ability to guide us in general. God will give us the knowledge we need to follow him, not just be guided by our internal feelings and, often, sinful desires.
With even the best of tests, Noah still waits for this confirmation from God himself!
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
For over a month, even though he looks out and all things look dry, Noah stays on the ark. The ground was dry… implying it was probably still quite mucky down below. Even if it looked good, there were things Noah didn’t know. So, God still had him wait. And Noah still (wisely) waits for confirmation from God. How often might that be true in our lives as well? It looks good on the surface, but we still don’t know the whole truth…
You and I can have confirmation like this as well. I have found that as we wait for God to execute HIS plan, as we faithfully trust and test whether we are rightly seeing where the plan is taking us next, we can also receive confirmation from God. God can use his Holy Spirit, his people, and his world to confirm things for us. Noah only leaves the ark once he has confirmation from God to leave.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV
It is no mistake that many of the verses I have quoted today are, first and foremost, about God guiding us to holy living. God is guiding us to salvation. I think the problems we are most concerned about are often not God's first concern. I don’t know that God is mostly concerned with where we live, the job we have, or any other thing we tend to want to know or test. I think, like a good father, he wants to help us only find good things in all those areas as well!
But God is much more concerned about WHO we are and HOW we trust him. THAT will be a challenge for all of us, no matter the situation we find ourselves in. That should be our primary concern at every turn. Am I trusting in God? Where is my faith right now? I think Noah could have lived out the rest of his days on the ark if God so desired. But as God wants us all to see—any challenge, any tribulation, any suffering WILL have an end. If not today and here, tomorrow and with him!
Again:
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:25 ESV
Conclusion
We see here in these specific dates of the flood account and Noah’s year-pluson the ark that we are called to have:
Patience with God’s Plan
(To remember that) He Will Make It Happen (Last Week)
(That) He Remembers YOU
(And) It’s Okay to Test God’s Plan
But let me give you this last thought this morning as our conclusion:
What am I to do in the meantime?
As you are waiting on God, putting your faith in his plan of salvation for us in Jesus Christ as your ultimate concern, and also trying to know the specific timing and daily plans of God, what should you do? What do we do as we test, wait, and seek confirmation from God? I find God’s encouragement to Israel in exile so helpful! Back to Jeremiah 29, where we started today:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. [And] seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29:4–7 ESV
When you are still trying to discern what God would have you do next, keep doing what is normal. Do your job well. Live in your houses. Get married if God calls you to that. Have children if that is what seems best. Work for the welfare of the city and those God has put around you.
Response
Patience with God’s Plan
He Will Make It Happen (Last Week)
He Remembers YOU
It’s Okay to Test God’s Plan
What am I to do in the meantime?
