Unsinkable Hope: God’s Promises and Your Mental Health

Scriptures: Genesis 8:18-19, John 16:33

Completely exhausted. 

That’s how I felt in the first few days after my oldest son was born. As a new dad, I was totally and completely naive. I expected the most challenging time would be supporting my wife through pregnancy and delivery. But that wasn’t the storm’s end – it was only the beginning. 

We ended up at Chick-fil-A restaurant on our first date night after having our son. In that short window between sitting down and getting our food, my wife and I put our heads on the windowsill next to our booth and nearly fell asleep. We were exhausted! 

That was one of many times I found myself in the middle of a storm, wondering when it would end. So often when we’re coming to the end of a challenging season, there’s this feeling of “Get me out of here!” Graduates are familiar with this feeling as they face “senioritis,” a decline in motivation as they approach the finish line. 

You may have experienced what I call “storm-itis” — an affliction characterized by a decline in motivation, an increase in restlessness, and a sense of disconnection. Far too often, we expect that following Jesus will include minimal difficulty and maximum prosperity. This is why many Christians embrace the concept of a prosperity gospel, where we expect God to make us healthy, wealthy, and happy. 

When things become difficult – think sickness, poverty, or depression – we wonder what we did wrong and if God still loves us. 

That’s where Noah was in the final part of his storm, which we’ll study over the next few days. This study will reveal a profound truth: God does not promise us constant prosperity. God offers us unsinkable hope in adversity. 

The Bible doesn’t offer us a prosperity gospel. If anything, it provides an adversity gospel that speaks to how we navigate life’s inevitable challenges with God’s help. 

Prayer 

Lord, I’ve often expected life with You to be smooth sailing, but Your Word shows a different story. Help me reset my expectations today. Rather than anticipating constant prosperity, teach me to look for Your presence in adversity. Thank You that my hope in You remains unsinkable, even in life’s storms. Amen. 

Today’s Reflection 

When have you expected a storm in your life to end, only to discover it was just beginning? How did that expectation gap affect your faith?

Scriptures: Genesis 8:20-21, Matthew 7:9-11

What we do when our storm is over shows where our heart was during the storm.

What was the first thing he did when Noah finally stepped onto dry land after 377 days in the ark? Scripture tells us that Noah built an altar. Before anything else, he chose to worship God and thank Him for delivering his family through the flood. 

This was not a spontaneous decision. We often picture the animals entering the ark two by two. In Genesis 7, however, we see God instruct Noah to bring seven pairs of clean animals. What if Noah was already planning this worship moment while still on the ark? What if he knew what he wanted to do when he finally reached dry land? What if he wanted to thank God for faithfully carrying him through? 

If you reflect on your experiences and the testimonies of people you love and admire, you know God does powerful work in our hearts during storms. When we come out on the other side of adversity, we are different because of what God did in us during that difficult season. 

Nicky Gumbel once wrote, “Who you are becoming while you are waiting is as important as what you’re waiting for.” When you pray, “God, get me out of here,” you may miss the opportunity for God to transform who you are. 

Noah was grateful during the storm, which made him thankful when the storm ended. It’s challenging to be grateful when God blesses us with success if we aren’t thankful during adversity. If we can’t praise God in the storm, then when prosperity comes, we’re tempted to take credit for ourselves. 

God often takes us through challenging circumstances to prepare us for moments of success or prosperity. He forms us in those seasons where we feel like something’s happened to us that we didn’t choose. 

So many of us have heard teaching that God is going to bless us all with prosperity. The Scriptures say that God wants to bring us into an abundant life and give good gifts to His children. But that will not always look like material prosperity — if it did, there would be no poor people among the followers of Jesus. None of us would ever lose our jobs or struggle financially after becoming followers of Jesus. 

However, God sustains us in adversity. Prosperity may come for us, but what’s most important is that God builds our character in adversity so that we can enjoy prosperity without it ruining our relationship with Him. 

Noah praised God when he walked out of the ark because he had been praising God all along. 

Prayer 

Father, thank You for reminding me that my response to life’s storms shapes who I become. Help me learn to worship You, not just after the storm passes but during its fiercest moments. I want to praise You in both adversity and prosperity. Transform my heart so that gratitude becomes my first response, no matter my circumstances. Amen. 

Today’s Reflection 

What is your typical first response to adversity? How might your experience change if your first reaction was gratitude and worship instead of complaint or discouragement?

Scriptures: Genesis 9:1-7, Genesis 1:28, Psalms 34:18

A popular song when I was a teenager included the following lyric, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

When God tells Noah after the flood to “be fruitful and multiply,” these aren’t new words. They’re the exact words God spoke to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1. God is essentially hitting the reset button and starting over. 

I believe Noah experienced mixed emotions in this moment. There was excitement about being out of the ark and free again, but also sadness recognizing they were the only humans alive on earth. There was hope for the future, but perhaps also some dread about the responsibility of starting over. 

If you’ve graduated, accepted a new job, or are preparing to move, you know exactly what these mixed emotions feel like. You’re excited for the future God has in front of you, yet a part of you is also sad about what you’re leaving behind. You may feel hope as you look ahead, mixed with fear about the goodbyes. 

According to my friend Robyn, who wrote an entire book about Noah’s story, Noah had been in the ark for 377 days. After all that time, I imagine Noah had mixed feelings about leaving. 

My wife has been through major highs and lows over the past six months. After being appointed as a judge in our county, our family celebrated with the biggest party we’ve thrown since our wedding. But, she needed to be elected to keep her position at the end of the next year. During that campaign, others said horrible, untrue things about her. The intensity of the campaign took a major toll on her physical and mental health. After 10 months of difficult campaigning, she lost by 6% and was unemployed two weeks later. She grieved the loss deeply. It was a difficult holiday season. We scrambled to figure out health insurance and made radical changes to our family budget. 

Since her loss, she’s taken several courageous steps, opening her own law firm, filling in for other judges, and applying for different positions. She’s not fully recovered, but we can see the end of this dark season coming soon. 

But she recently told me how grateful she’s been for the gifts of this season. Our family recently took a weeklong vacation. Her flexible schedule has given her more time with our kids and allowed us to attend a marriage weekend. It’s been fascinating to watch her hold gratitude and grief together. 

If you’re coming to the end of a storm and entering a new beginning, I want to encourage you to: 

• Leave time for yourself to grieve. We live in a culture that often resists grief, but the process of grieving takes longer than we realize. 
• Be patient with your recovery. Unlike your phone, you can’t recharge in an hour. 
• Redefine yourself. Maybe you’re not the same person you were when the storm started. Allow yourself to embrace who you’ve become. 
• Embrace limits. You may not be capable of everything you were before. You may have different boundaries in this new era. 

Prayer 

God, thank You for the new beginnings You bring after storms in my life. Help me navigate the mixed emotions that come with transitions. Give me the courage to grieve what’s ending, the patience to recover well, the wisdom to redefine myself according to Your purposes, and the humility to embrace my limits. I trust You with both my endings and my beginnings. Amen. 

Today’s Reflection 

What “new beginning” might God be preparing in your life right now? What do you need to let go of to step fully into it?

Scriptures: Genesis 9:11-13, 2 Corinthians 4:5-7

In a world where the prosperity teaching is popular, it’s important to remember the rainbow.

The rainbow is one of the iconic images we associate with Noah’s story. But we often misunderstand the rainbow’s purpose in Genesis 9. 

We tend to think God created the rainbow as a tool to help us remember His promise. But if you read the text carefully, God didn’t make the rainbow for us. He says, “I have set my bow in the cloud, and…when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant.” 

God created the rainbow so that when He sees it, He will remember what He promised to us and hold fast to that covenant. 

This covenant God made with Noah — that we still live under today — is about God’s faithfulness, not ours. God will be faithful even when we are not. After Noah’s death, did people live perfect, holy, and righteous lives? No. So why doesn’t God destroy the earth with a flood again? Because He’s faithful, not because we are. 

Our hope is in God’s character, not our consistency.

The storms I’ve been through have humbled me. After all, if you go through a storm and you’re not humbled on the other side, you’re doing it wrong. Over the past twenty years, my wife and I have endured many storms. 

• Facing $200,000+ in debt (without a mortgage) as newlyweds 
• Nearly losing our twins 17 weeks into pregnancy, followed by 18 weeks of bed rest for my wife 
• My nightly panic attacks for three weeks during a significant move for our family 

No matter which storms God has allowed in my life, each one humbled me, bringing me to my knees in prayer and surrender. 

Storms reveal that we are flawed and imperfect. We are not in control and far more vulnerable and dependent on God than we realize. I believe God allows storms in our lives to humble us and remind us how He wants us to live in relationship to Him. 

In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul writes: “We don’t preach about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake… We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 

Paul lists the many adversities he and the believers were facing, concluding that adversity redirects their hope to Jesus. That’s the unsinkable hope amid your storm — not yourself, your consistency, nor your character, but God’s.

You and I are fragile jars of clay that God has chosen to use to display His light to the world. In the darkest storms, things will get challenging and complicated. We may struggle and stumble, but our hope is not in ourselves. Our hope is in God, that He will sustain us even in adversity. 

Prayer 

Father, thank You that my hope doesn’t depend on my consistency but on Your unchanging character. When I look at the rainbow, remind me that You are faithfully keeping Your promises, not because I’ve earned it, but because that’s who You are. Thank you for humbling me through life’s storms so I can see my need for You more clearly. I praise You for being my unsinkable hope in every adversity. Amen. 

Today’s Reflection 

In what area of your life are you trying to be the hero rather than letting God be the hero? How might recognizing your dependence on God’s character rather than your ability to control things change your approach to current challenges?

Scriptures: Genesis 9:20-23, 1 Corinthians 10:11-13, Romans 8:28

We’ve all got some Noah in us.

My wife and I are huge movie buffs, especially superhero ones. Many superhero movies in recent years have included a short scene during or after the credits that gives you greater insight into their story or hints at what’s coming next. 

The Bible offers us a sobering “post-credit scene” with Noah in Genesis 9:20-23. After surviving the flood, following God faithfully, and starting fresh on dry land, Noah plants a vineyard, gets drunk, and passes out naked in his tent. 

The final picture of Noah’s life is not a great scene, and his kids don’t handle it well either. One son mocks him, while the others respectfully cover their father’s nakedness. Noah later curses the son who disrespected him and blesses the other. 

This ending reminds us of a few essential truths: 

• Everyone’s broken. 
• Everyone’s vulnerable. 
• Everyone’s sinful. 
• Everyone can fall, including Noah, you, and me.

When we read the Bible, there’s a temptation to put famous characters like Abraham, Moses, or David on a pedestal. We want them to be larger than life. But this final scene of Noah’s life shatters that illusion. 

Noah is listed in Hebrews 11 within the “Hall of Fame of Faith” alongside many others celebrated for their faith. Yet, Noah doesn’t finish well. He stumbled in the end. It’s a sobering reminder that you can navigate a storm well, trusting and following God throughout, and then stumble when it’s over. 

After studying the story of Noah and learning a ton from my friend Robyn’s book, I want to leave you with a simple truth: Noah isn’t the hero of the story. God is.

We should learn from Noah and apply principles from his experience to our own. But Noah isn’t the hero we should emulate. Noah didn’t live a sinless and perfect life, go through everything he experienced, die on the cross for our sins, and come back from the dead. Jesus did! 

Noah isn’t our savior. Jesus is! And in Noah’s story, God is the hero because He is the one who provides, protects, and preserves Noah and his family through the flood. The hero of the flood story is God, and our hope is in Him. 

There’s good news in Noah’s post-credit scene, though. Even in his failure, God’s faithfulness remains. God doesn’t revoke His covenant when Noah sins. His promises still stand. That’s the beauty of the gospel — it acknowledges our brokenness and points us to the God who loves us through it all. Even if the adversity we face is the product of our destructive decisions, we serve a God who wastes nothing and works all things together for the good of those who love Him.

The next time adversity strikes in your life, remember: prosperity isn’t guaranteed, but God’s presence is. Your hope isn’t in your ability to weather the storm perfectly, but in the God who remains faithful even when you falter. And when you stumble (not if, but when), God’s grace is still there, just as it was for Noah. 

Don’t forget: When suffering inevitably comes, as it has for everyone who follows Jesus, God offers unsinkable hope to carry you through it. Don’t give up – keep trusting His promises and depending on His grace. 

Prayer 

God, thank You for showing me the whole story of those who followed You. I’m grateful that You included Noah’s stumbles in Scripture because they remind me that Your grace is greater than my weakness. When I fall, remind me that You’re still faithful. When others fall, help me respond with grace. You, Lord, are my ultimate example, and You are the true hero of every story I read in the Bible. Amen.