Hebrews 11:7
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Part of faith is looking beyond what we know, what we understand, and what we have experienced.  God can do more than we know.  God moves beyond our understanding.  Sometimes things just don’t make sense to us, but we can believe God and trust in Him.  And we demonstrate our faith by acting accordingly.  We have to respond properly to God’s Word that He gives to us.

In Noah’s case it was rain and a flood, something unheard of so far in the history of the world at that time.  It takes great faith to obey in those times of uncertainty.  But it is counted for righteousness to trust in the salvation of God and His method of salvation.  For Noah, it was an ark, just a big boat, but that was what was necessary to survive the judgment of the flood.  In our case, it’s a cross, just some wood and some nails and a Savior giving His life to spare us from the punishment of sin.

Another part of faith, then, is obedience.  It’s not just that we know what God says, but we have to do something about it.  It wasn’t enough for Noah just to intellectually understand what was going to happen and reason it out in his mind.  He had to build the boat.  He had to apply God’s Word to his life.  And the same is true for us.  It’s not always just about knowing, but about acting on what God says in faith.  We accept Christ, we take steps, we move forward, we do what God wants us to do.

May we be willing to have big faith in a big God, to recognize that He is unlimited, to understand the surety of His promises and the wisdom of obedience.  May we be willing to respond accordingly to His Word and trust Him in an uncertain world.  May the trials and challenges that come our way simply be opportunities to exercise our faith in our great and loving God.