Like Noah: Holding Fast to God’s Word Through Delays and Warnings

stephaniearje
Nov 3
3 min read

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Noah.

He was told something by the Lord that had never before been seen or even imagined. God warned him of rain when the earth had never experienced rain. He gave him a blueprint for an ark when no one had ever built one. And yet, Noah persisted for 120 years—faithfully following the pattern heaven gave him.

I think about the things God has spoken to me over my own life—both His promises and His warnings. When I first received those words, my heart burned with passion. I could almost see my destiny unfolding before me. But as time passed, that fire dimmed. Delay has a way of dulling desire if we don’t continually return to the One who spoke.

Holding Fast to God’s Word

There’s a difference between hearing God and holding fast to what He said.

Noah didn’t just believe once—he kept building for 120 years. I think about that often: how faith demands endurance through delay. The same is true when God speaks promises or warnings to us. Both require persistence, prayer, and repentance to stay aligned with heaven’s blueprint.

I’ve learned that warnings are just as much an expression of God’s love as His promises are. They’re not meant to terrify us but to awaken us—to turn us toward repentance, prayer, and strategy so that destruction can be averted. We saw this in Nebuchadnezzar’s life: judgment was pronounced, but repentance extended his days to fulfill God’s purposes.

Still, warnings are hard. People don’t want to hear them. I remember when God first spoke to me about coming persecution—persecution so severe that it would shake both Jews and Christians, even surpassing the horrors of the Holocaust. The urgency burned inside me; I wanted to shout, “Wake up! Prepare your hearts!”

But when time passed and nothing seemed to happen, I felt foolish. People didn’t want to hear something “negative.” My urgency waned. I slipped into a quieter form of unbelief.

Yet now, as I see persecution rising across the earth—Christians martyred in Nigeria, Jewish communities threatened, the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk, violence in schools and synagogues—I sense that same stirring again. Things I never imagined in the America of my childhood are now commonplace.

No, we weren’t perfect back then. There was prejudice to correct, injustices to confront. But I never saw such open hostility toward God’s people or such deep deception. People now call good evil and evil good. They defy logic, science, and even the most basic truths—calling women men and men women. It’s the parable of the emperor’s new clothes come to life.

We’ve become a nation parading our nakedness, convinced it’s glory.

And yet, like Noah, I want to persevere. I want to hold fast to what God said—whether promise or warning.

A Prayer for Strength and Mercy

Father, forgive us for our unbelief.

Forgive us for growing cold in heart when the delay stretches on.

Forgive us for calling You to account while refusing to account for ourselves.

I now understand how hearts can grow harder, even under judgment. I see it happening all around—people clinging to pride, to false strength, to their own logic. But Lord, help us not to be among them. Help us to stay awake and stay soft.