16 April

TODAY’S VERSE

I am putting my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of the agreement between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:13 ICB

DEVOTIONAL

Have you ever been so proud of something you’ve made, only to have someone else mess it up? Maybe it’s a tower you built that got knocked down by a sibling, or a picture you drew that got spilled on, or a school project where a classmate didn’t do their part. It hurts us when our precious things get damaged.

A long, long, long time ago, when Noah was alive, the whole world had been messed up. God created a beautiful, special place for people to live with Him forever, but instead the people chose to ignore God, to hurt each other and the world He created. They chose sin. By the time Noah was alive, there were thousands and thousands of people in the world and every single one of them was choosing to ignore God and mess it all up. Imagine thousands of people you love purposefully messing up something you made!

Noah wasn’t perfect, but he did want to listen to God. God said that the whole world needed to start over again, because it was so broken by people’s sin. God chose to save Noah, not because he was a good man, but because he loved the Lord. So Noah built the ark and got in with his family and all the animals, and when the flood came up and covered the whole world, Noah was safe.

After the flood went away, God made a promise. He promised to never again destroy the world with a flood, and he put a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the promise.

The problem is that people did not stop sinning. The world we live in is still messed up, and people still break it and hurt each other. Can you think of something that you have said or thought or done today that might have hurt someone?

The great news is that instead of destroying the world, God has chosen to rescue us! Not on a boat like Noah, but by Jesus dying on the cross. Because of Jesus, we can ask God to forgive us for the times that we ignore him and mess up His world. One day, if we are trusting in Jesus, God will bring us to a New Creation, where nothing will be messed up ever again.

PRAYER

Dear God, thank you for promising to never flood the world again. Thank you for rescuing Noah, and thank you that you have sent Jesus to rescue us. Please forgive me for (think of something!) and for not always listening to you. Please help me to live in the world in the way that you want me to. In Jesus’ name, Amen.