There are so many examples of this in the Bible, but none better than Abram. In Genesis 15, God speaks to Abram:

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Genesis 15:1 ESV

Abram had just turned down a great reward from the king of Sodom. How hard must it have been to turn that down? But here, God is telling him that there is even greater reward! Then God let’s him know that his offspring will outnumber the stars, as the guy is in his 90’s. If you have been trying to have children for that long, it’s pretty easy to see that you would think that it is not going to happen. Yet, with faith, anything is possible. We see here that we are rewarded for our faithfulness:

 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 ESV

How cool is that? Personally, from my reads, I know that God has something cooking for me. I don’t know what it is yet, but by faith I know that it is going to happen. It’s probably something that nobody, even myself, would think possible from me. But, I have faith that it will happen and I am fired up! How exciting is that? I’ll keep you posted…

7 So theLord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  Genesis 6:7 ESV

I found it ironic after reading this verse that this story is used all the time in children’s ministries. I missed this part of the story when I went to sunday school. The reason for the Ark story is because God is sick of the sexual depravity and violence that was going on. I just got a kick out of it. I don’t remember that part when I was a kid.

5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. Genesis 7:5 ESV

This verse really hit home with me. In making the Bible read a habit, God seems to stir in me (and hopefully you) things that I need to do. And to be quite honest, sometimes I am confused by it. But like Noah, I need to be ready to get on it, despite what anybody thinks. Can you imagine how different Noah had to be from what was going on? It’s hard. The Bible says it all the time, but we have to be able to things that others might think are weird or wrong.

16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Luke 3:16 ESV

In this passage, John is bringing the Good News to the crowd and they are digging him, maybe thinking that he is the Savior. It would probably be pretty easy for him to get caught up in the frenzy and think it had something to do with himself. But, he knows where it is coming from. Jesus is the one for them to follow, not John. I hope that I never forget that too. It’s all about Jesus and I am just lucky enough to talk about it. We are all so lucky.