Is Grateful For God’s Mercy

Is Grateful For God’s Mercy

A HERO’S TALE

Here’s a pop quiz: What is a rainbow?

• A. A multicolored arc in the earth’s atmosphere that is caused by the reflection of light in water droplets.
• B. A sign of God’s promise to never destroy the earth again by flood.
• C. Something that leprechauns keep their pots of gold at the end of.
• D. Answers A and B.

If you answered choice D, you’re correct! Rainbows are amazing meteorological phenomena that occur when the sun comes back out during or after rainstorms. But rainbows are also a reminder —a thousands-of-years-old reminder —of God’s love and mercy.

God showed both to Noah during the Great Flood of Genesis 7–8. When the rain stopped and the floodwaters receded, Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. Finally, after more than a year inside the ark, Noah and his family stepped on dry ground again. There, Noah worshiped God by offering a sacrifice.

God put a rainbow in the sky and made a promise to Noah: “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things” (Genesis 8:21).

And ever since then, God has stayed true to his word.

DECODING THE MESSAGE

In the story of Noah’s ark, Noah’s faith is remarkable. So is the God-ordained miracle of everything in the ark surviving the Flood. But the greatest part of the story is the mercy of God.

You see, God would have been completely justified if he had washed away Noah and his family in the Flood, along with everyone else. As great as Noah was, he didn’t deserve to be saved. Noah was a sinner just like us, and the Bible is very clear that sin deserves death (see Romans 6:23).

God doesn’t owe us anything. Our hearts are naturally rebellious toward him. Whatever good we receive from him is a gift, not a right. We deserve punishment and death. But God gives us mercy anyway (and a lot of rainbows!) because he loves us so deeply.

Noah understood this and worshiped God. That should be our response to God’s mercy too!

BATTLE PLAN

Memorize today’s Bible verse. It’s a great reminder of God’s mercy toward us.