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Building a Big Boat on Dry Land - Part 3

by Jerry Ousley  
5/18/2012 / Christian Living

I like building websites. It's like you have created something out of nothing. Of course only God can really do that but because you have transformed an idea into an attractive display on a computer screen, it almost seems like you've made something from nothing.

Our own website, www.spiritbread.com, has been an evolving process over a number of years. Our original design was the result of not knowing much about it. We had a site that got the job done but it was a bit confusing and hard to manipulate through. As the years passed and we became more experienced in building websites we tried out new ideas on our own site first. Some of those ideas were nothing more than blunders that just didn't work right or convey the message properly.

Today we feel that we have a very attractive site with a lot to offer (if you have visited our site and disagree with this please humor me but really, if you've found that to be true email me so I can get it fixed). It took several years to get it to the point that it is today. But when God creates something it is done instantly at the mere whisper of His word.

Noah, while using the building materials and tools of his day, probably felt like the ark he was constructing would never be finished. The Bible indicates that it took him one hundred years to build the ark. It was a great feat for his day. When it was finished it was as large as a small ocean liner. It had to be big and well planned in order to accommodate eight people and hundreds of animals of all sizes, along with food storage, for more than a year. Sometimes we pass that off in a few words, but folks, it was an enormous undertaking.

God had given him the plans and he built it exactly as God had instructed him. But it also took faith. As we have already said, he was mocked and ridiculed over it. Think about how we'd most likely react to someone building a boat that size in the middle of Colorado or Wyoming. We'd think they were crazy!

The faith of Noah and his dependence on God got the job done. Hebrews 11:1 gives, in a way, a definition of faith. We know that faith could be defined in an acrostic that says faith is Full Assurance in the heart F-A-I-T-H. We need to know from within us that whatever it is that God has spoken to us about, can and will be done if we'll only stand true and persevere. The light shed on faith in Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the material, or substance, of the things we hope for and that faith is the evidence of what we cannot yet see. In other words, our belief and trust in God, our faith, is the proof that the unseen things God has spoken to us and instructed us to do in our hearts will come to fruition and will take place.

Today, if we apply for a sizeable loan of some sort we have to have collateral something material that we can see that will let the lending institution know that if we can't pay they have something of value to claim for their money. Our faith is our collateral that what God has put in us will be accomplished.

If we don't have faith we will never get the job done. If we are constantly complaining to God because we haven't seen the reality of what He has told us yet, or if we live in doubt because we can't see the proof with one of our natural senses, then we may never see that vision become reality.

Sometimes those results come right away. Sometimes they take years. Noah's vision took one hundred years; Abraham's vision took place several generations after he was dead and gone; Moses heart's desire to free his people took forty years and found him eighty years old before God allowed it to happen. God can work instantly; there is no doubt about that. But sometimes God's timing kicks in. God knows when our vision will be most beneficial, not only to us, but to others who will be affected by it, and will count the most. It may take some time. But don't lose sight of your vision and never forget the real substance that makes it up. Your faith, like Noah's, will one day see your own big boat on dry land materialize.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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