Reciprocal

I do appreciate it when I do something for someone else and they try to “pay me back” for it. Reciprocal means something given or felt in return. I try to be reciprocal to others out of gratitude for their kindness or good will. I came across a passage from the story of Noah where He and God are reciprocal of one another. Check this out…

1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. (Genesis 8:1-5 NIV)

The Lord didn’t forget the only family left on the earth was in a boat full of every living creature on the earth. He didn’t forget that Noah was a righteous man. The Lord started “curing” the flood and taking the water levels back down to normal. I love Noah’s response to the dry land. Check this out…

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on land – came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (Genesis 8:18-21 NIV)

Noah had spent several long months building the boat that saved he and his family along with the animals. The first thing he did upon getting off the ark, was build an altar to the Lord. He didn’t have a large selection of animals to sacrifice, but he knew the Lord would love the aroma. He remembered to worship the Lord and give Him thanks.

I’m thankful that God never forgets me. He knows right where I am and what I’m going through. I really want to remember the Lord every day because my relationship with Him is comforting and He gives me such strength. I want to worship Him the way He wants me to worship. I want to live the way He wants me to live. I can never thank Him enough for all that He’s done for me.

Pressing On!

Dwayne