By Faith by Marta Greenman

Today’s guest blog is provided by author Marta Greenman. Marta’s life calling is to inspire others to fall in love with God and teach them how to study His Word to bring change in their lives. She is the founder of Words of Grace & Truth, author of two published Bible studies, Bible teacher, conference speaker, and wife to Marshall. You can find Marta’s testimony and studies at wogt.org.

Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6a). If you have been in the church for any length of time you have heard this statement. But what does faith look like? Hebrews chapter eleven is known as the faith chapter, or as I like to refer to it, the Hall of Faith. It’s where the New Testament lists the heroes of the Old Testament: you know by faith Able, by faith Enoch, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah, by faith Moses. . . .

Noah’s faith story is my favorite. Hebrews tells us, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:7).

Almost everyone knows the story. God told Noah to build an ark. As children we sang songs about animals going into the ark two-by-two. We paint children’s bedrooms with animals, the ark, and a rainbow in the background. But have you really contemplated what God was asking of Noah? Hebrews said Noah was being warned about things not yet seen.

What had not yet been seen?

In Genesis 6 and 7 we find that Noah began building the ark when he was at least 480 years old; God flooded the earth when he was 600 years old. Noah spent this time building the ark, which was about 450 yards long. Folks that’s four and a half football fields! It was also about half the width of a football field, and approximately four stories high. Imagine the enormity of the task.

The story gets even more interesting when we ask again, “What had not yet been seen?”

The answer is rain. Yes, rain! We are not talking about just any rain, but a rain that wouldn’t stop until the whole earth was flooded. In Noah’s time people had never seen rain. Before the flood God watered the earth with a mist that came up from the ground (Genesis 2:6).

We also learn that “every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil” (Genesis 6:5). Can you imagine what the people must have thought? Why this man would need a boat, they couldn’t understand. These wicked people most likely ridiculed Noah for over one hundred years while he was hammering away at the task God had called him to do.

Noah himself probably couldn’t understand what the Lord was asking of him. Yet, not once, but twice Genesis tells us, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22, 7:5). The Hebrew word for did is `asah and it means exactly what you think it should. It’s the action of doing. This gives us a picture of faith. Noah did what the Lord asked of him because he felt obligated to obey and wanted to be faithful to God. The action of doing is what displayed Noah’s faith.

For 120 years Noah continued to work and labor at what the Lord had asked of him without truly understanding. Noah did not understand rain either. Yet this man of faith blindly stepped out and did something that had never been done before. This was real faith, taking action.

What is God calling you to `asah (to do)? Have you’ve said, “I don’t know . . . or I can’t?” Whatever your I can’t or don’t know is, Jesus is there asking you to blindly step out and day by day hammer on your ark. Though it may seem impossible and you may not fully understand, you can still choose to be obedient to the Lord and let you actions prove your faith. James teaches, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?” (James 2:14). It is our actions that prove our faith.

Noah’s family was saved and all future generations were saved because of his great faith. We are here because Noah chose to be obedient. His faith still impacts us today. How will God use your faith to impact others? Unless you step out, you will never know.