Day 6
Heir of the righteousness
To Start
Be still and silent.
Sometimes when my mind is racing I use a prayer word to keep me focused and lead me into silence. I’ll say the word, “Stay” slowly and on repeat until I’m able to respect and receive the quiet.
Pray
Yahweh, help me understand the truth in Your Word. Then, plant this verse in my heart and grow something good.
Read
Read Hebrews 11:7 & Genesis 6:8-14
Read Hebrews 11:7 three or four times.
Ask God to show you what you need to see.
Summarize the verse in your own words.
What two things does the Hebrews author say Noah did by faith?
What hurdles do you think Noah faced as he built the ark?
What do you think the line “by faith he condemned the world” means?
Explain “an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Hebrews 11:7 (CSB)
By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Genesis 6:8-14 (CSB)
9 These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.
14 “Make yourself an ark…”
From JL
We could camp out in a few different spots in today’s short reading:
What does it look like to be “motivated by godly fear?”
What should I be afraid of as a person of faith? (Luke 12:4-5, 2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 Peter 2:17)
How might that fear change the way I live?
What does it mean to condemn the world?
Why does it take faith to condemn the world?
How do we as Christians recognize wickedness, separate ourselves from it, condemn it, and also love the people practicing it?
What do I personally need to condemn? Where is a lack of faith causing me to bend to the shape of the world around me?
If either of those prompts is really reaching you today, take your time and stay with those thoughts.
Personally, I find myself thinking about this line:
“By faith he […] became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
I think it’s hitting so hard, because I’m in a season of something like inheritance.
When my children were born 15 months apart I found myself struggling to accept my new life as mother. For one, I was bad at it. I was selfish, undisciplined, and too much in my mind for this very bodily task. But beyond that, I wasn’t sure I wanted it—not in this immersive, all day every day sort of way. So I took a part time job as a college English teacher. And started writing. And volunteered to teach a Bible class at my church. Over the years I’d pile up activity after activity in an effort to run away (or distract myself) from the hard work of mothering.
Here’s the rub: I knew God was asking me to show up for my kids. I knew He wanted me to be devoted to them. I knew I needed to stop pulling back and start leaning in. I felt it every time I sat time down to pray.
Twice I considered taking a full time job, but both times (ten years apart) when push came to shove I couldn’t stop crying.
I’m not saying every mom needs to stay at home or homeschool or be the school PTA president, but I knew I needed to, so I stayed home when they were babies, homeschooled them for kindergarten and first grade, was the school PTA president while they were in elementary school, and then homeschooled them again for 6 more years.
I grumbled all the way.
But over time I fell in love with being a mom—partly because I was finally getting good at it. I was less selfish, more disciplined, more curious about them, more devoted to their good. I was more patient and more kind. Wiser. Gentler.
Ask anyone who knows me, I am a better woman on the far side of motherhood.
I think it’s the righteousness that comes by faith.
I didn’t earn it. I mean, honestly, I fought against it. But God kept drawing me onward, and because I didn’t say no to Him,1 I ended up an heir.
Pray
Yahweh, make me an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Teach me to wait with patience and ambition.
In the Comments
Faith doesn’t always “pay off” here on earth in the ways we wish it would. But it does pay off (now and in the time to come).
Share an inheritance story—a time when walking by faith led to some kind of inheritance.
Maybe it was refining. Maybe God saved you from a major mistake. Maybe he brought you into a relationship that’s undeniably a treasure.
We’d love to hear about it.
Godspeed,
JL
“I couldn’t say no to Him” is a good definition of faith.
I walked out of an abusive marriage while making a little over $300 a month in the job I took just for the insurance. I heard the verse “don’t lay your pearls before swine” in a Sunday night sermon, and it was like hearing it for the first time. I walked off a cliff trusting God to catch me, and He did. It should not have worked. I should have been homeless. Yet I never missed a meal and no bill ever went unpaid. Psalm 37:25 is true, as is every other promise He makes in his wonderful word. God is real. He loves us.
I hope I might be in the middle of an inheritance story of my own.
I was arrested by the footnote - “I couldn’t say no to Him” is a good definition of faith. It reminded me of something I journaled recently. For context, our family recently suffered loss.
I journaled: I acknowledge the Lord but won’t look Him directly in the eye. It’s like running into someone you were close to in the past. You have a shared history that ran deep but now you’re different people. Or in this case it’s just me that has changed. And I feel like I already know the end result. I know I’ll draw close again, it’s like a foregone conclusion, but I don’t know how to bridge the gap from here to there. Maybe it starts with making direct eye contact.
This day’s study was encouraging. It felt like I have my own version of “not being able to say no”, I just need a bit more time for God to draw me onward, as you said.