Living for One While Living Among Many Part 2:

The ability to live for One while living among many is greatly determined by who we choose walk with and who we choose to have a relationship with on a consistent, daily basis. What about if you find yourself isolated in your pursuit to follow and honor God? Sure, you may be among many, but what if you find yourself to be the only one among the many with a heart that longs to honor God? As a person who tends to be a bit emotionally driven, I am more likely to think about how I may feel in this scenario, rather than what I should do. It’s easy for me to go into great depths of how I may feel in my striving to live for God while putting aside the ways of the world, but when I pause to think about what I should be doing despite how I feel, I have to work a bit more to find the answers. I tend to be so caught up into my emotions, that I fail to recognize the actions that I should be practicing to help me remain faithful to living for One while living among the many.
I began searching for the answers to practical living, and the life of Noah seemed like the logical choice to investigate for answers. After taking a more in-depth look at Noah, I was surprised to learn that some things that I thought I knew about Noah are actually not written anywhere in scripture. I always thought that Noah was made fun for building an ark far from a body of water and that he was made fun for being the only one to follow God, but it doesn’t say that anywhere. The likelihood of harassment is probable, but the Bible is silent on that matter. The Bible is silent on how Noah felt being the only one (his family included) to follow God, however, the Bible does speak to what Noah was busy doing during a time of “great wickedness”.

So here is what we know from Genesis 6:9-22 about Noah:
 *Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord
 *Noah was a righteous man
 *Noah listened to God
 *Noah was focused on the task God had given him
 *Noah was faithful to the end
 *Noah did everything God commanded
 *Noah walked with God
Everything Noah did was centered on following God and he remained faithful to the end. Noah was able to faithfully follow every command because he continued to walk with God consistently, and therefore, he gained assurance and stability because he knew God. I like to think that Noah was as zoned in to following God’s commands as my kids are to the TV and, consequently, he was oblivious to anything else that may have been going on around him. I imagine that Noah was so God focused and determined to faithfully complete the task God had given him, that if there were voices of discouragement, he had a hard time hearing them because he was so busy listening to the voice of God!

Yes, we live among many, but we live for One! Let’s make sure that we are found busy walking and talking to the One who has called us so that we too can keep our focus and remain faithful to the end!

“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” Genesis 6:9