Just before the flood begins to recede, Scripture tells us that a wind moves across the earth. The Hebrew word is ruah—a word rich with meaning. It can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. This is the same word used in Genesis 1, when the Spirit of God moves over the formless waters at creation. It’s the same word used when God breathes life into Adam.
That connection isn’t accidental.
In moments when the world feels undone, God’s Spirit is moving. In moments when everything seems washed out or broken down, God is not absent or scrambling for a solution. He is already at work, breathing life where there was none, shaping order out of chaos, preparing something new.
The flood is often remembered for its destruction, and rightly so. But Scripture doesn’t let the story end there. The movement of ruah signals that God is not finished. Judgment does not have the final word. Renewal is coming. Life will begin again—not because humanity figured it out, but because God’s Spirit moved.
This pattern shows up again and again. Creation. Re-creation. New beginnings that arrive not through human strength or ingenuity, but through the quiet, powerful work of God’s Spirit.
That thread stretches all the way to Pentecost, when the sound of a rushing wind fills the room where the believers are gathered. Once again, ruah. Once again, God breathing life—this time into His people. And the result is not merely personal renewal, but world-altering movement. Ordinary men and women, empowered by the Spirit of God, step into God’s purposes and history is changed forever.
We often underestimate what God can do through lives yielded to His Spirit. We expect transformation to come through force, planning, or personality. But Scripture keeps pointing us back to the same truth: where the Spirit of God is moving, something new is being born.
That’s still true today.
When the Spirit of the Lord is at work, big things are happening—sometimes quietly, sometimes slowly, often beneath the surface before anyone else notices. Our call is not to manufacture that work, but to submit ourselves to it. To stay attentive. To remain open. To trust that God’s breath brings life, even when the world feels flooded and uncertain.
God,
You are the giver of life, the One whose Spirit moves where we cannot see.
Forgive us for the ways we resist Your work or try to control it. Forgive us for trusting our own strength more than Your breath.
Teach us to recognize the movement of Your Spirit and to surrender ourselves fully to Your will. Breathe new life into what feels worn down or broken within us.
We offer ourselves to You again today. Shape us, fill us, and use us for Your purposes, trusting that where Your Spirit moves, life follows.
Amen.