A Resume To Live For …
“These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9, ESV)
So, if you knew there was an upcoming meeting with God … what would you include in your spiritual resume? Interesting question isn’t it? The fact is we will all have that meeting one day (2 Corinthians 5:10) and the need for preparation is not down the road, but right now!
The Bible contains many examples of people from various walks of life who felt they needed to get their spiritual resume in order when they considered the thought of an encounter with God!
Anyone looking for employment should understand the meaning and value of a prepared resume. In its purest sense a resume is a composite listing of all the job experiences, education, community activities and the hobbies or interests that we enjoy and have participated in.
A resume … very simply … is a composite sketch of your life!
The God of Creation … of Heaven and earth … Who created all things by the power of His voice can be viewed as the ultimate Employer! The interesting fact to consider is that this Employer already knows everything about us!
And that leads us to this thought: We could somehow try and tally up all of our accomplishments … good deeds … things done in His name … sacrifices made in His behalf … number of hours reading/studying the Word … and maybe even the number of folks we have taught the truth (Matthew 7:21-23), but the Lord will shake His head and say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
What each us must come to understand is that what God truly desires on our so-called resume is not a list of our accomplishments we have performed … but, rather the kind of character we possess! For the Lord has the ability to see into our hearts, “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.”(Jeremiah 17:10).
Noah was just the sort of man that God looks with favor upon! His character is described in a pair of verses recorded in Genesis 6:8, 9 and each of us would do ourselves a great favor to be reading again … revisiting what it was about Noah that enabled him to be the one God chose to start the population of earth over again!
God used Noah based on the qualifications that God had set … not Noah and it is the same with reference to each of us! As someone once wrote, “God desires brokenness not haughtiness, faithfulness not financials, weakness that He may be glorified and not strength in ourselves.”
May we all come to better understand and apply the truth that it is the “blood of Christ” that makes us worthy of any assignment, duty, and even life itself in the kingdom! Your spiritual resume … my spiritual resume … is empty without the principle of His saving grace and our willingness to obey His will!
All any of us needs to write on our spiritual resume is this simple but profound truth: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Was Noah perfect? Nope! Did he make mistakes? Did he ever get discouraged? Probably! Did he have to make the decision to put the work of God ahead of his own parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, yes, for all those living!
Noah must have kept God’s laws sincerely and in a wholehearted manner, becoming a mature follower of God. He was wholehearted toward God. Noah “walked” with God, which is to say that he lived by God’s ways and stayed close to Him.
These terms—favor, just, perfect and walked—all describe characteristics that endeared Noah to God and reveal to us what Noah was really like. Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
You can be like Noah. You can set a right example, too. You also can participate in a great work that is, like Noah, properly and appropriately warning this decaying world of its evil ways and urging it to turn to God in real repentance.
The time to act—to get your own life in order—is now.
Make a conscious choice today to turn your life around. Choose the humble and obedient path of life, as Noah did. Like him, you can help save your life and the lives of your loved ones—beginning today.
May the words of our epitaphs be the same, simple words spoken of Noah: “…and he walked with God.”
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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