Different

… Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

(Genesis 6:8, NKJV)

Watching the major media outlets of the world, one will be forgiven to feel like the world is spinning on its head rather fast.  The amount of news and details of what is happening all around is exhausting to follow.  To some, it appears like we are competing against ourselves so that the rate of innovations makes what was trendy a few years ago quickly redundant.  For those who have held on to what has always worked, there is a sense that we are becoming a very wasteful society, busy discarding useful knowledge and equipment for the new and flashy.  The struggle to keep up with what is in the market is real to many.  Unfortunately, in an effort to keep to the changing trends, we are losing out on values that have held us as a society as we chase the next big thing. This is not all bad, some changes are welcome.  The question is what are we letting go, and what are we embracing?

The state of our world is not unique to our times.  The bible records that Noah lived in a time when the world around him was chaotic and wickedness was great.  In an attempt to find freedom, individuals had walked into sin and called it fashionable and right.  When we read this story, we are told that when God looked at His creation, He regretted creating man.  The condition of the world was such that God could not see His purpose in the people that He had created.  The people had chosen a path which was foreign to their God and so He wanted to destroy them all including the beasts of the earth (Genesis 6:5-7).  God was disappointed what He saw.  It is in this environment, that we find our reference verse, that despite all what was happening around him, Noah  found favour in the eyes of God.  Noah was different and this was taken note of by God, He singled Noah out. Clearly in the eyes of God, Noah was a man of a different spirit, one who was not allowing his environment to influence him as far as his reverence to God was concerned.  In Noah, God found someone, just one, that He could work with and so He instructed Noah to build the ark.  God even established a covenant with Noah (Genesis 6: 18).  God had found someone who was not only different from the rest, but also one who pleased Him.  That is how the human race which God had considered to destroy was saved,  through Noah and his ark.

Beloved, the God we serve is faithful to honour and protect those who fear Him.  He continually searches for men whose hearts honour Him as God.  In the world we live in, we are to be different.  As believers, we need not embrace all what the culture presents to us, we are to be guided by the word of God.  We are reminded by Apostle Paul, that we are not to be conformed to the standards of the world, but we are to transform the world (Romans 12:2).  That is what God is looking out for in our times, individuals who will not conform but through their actions and speech, transform one person at a time.  Brethren, Jesus told us who we are, the light of the world and our light cannot be hidden, it needs to shine out as a city upon a hill (Matthew 5:14-16).  It is in shinning our light that we transform our world, it is our light that makes us different just like Noah was different.  May we not deem our light so that we fit in. May we burn our light brightly, that others who see us glorify our God.

Thoughts:

Are you indeed different?

What is compromising your light?

When have others been drawn to your light?