Devotional: In The Beginning

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

It All Starts with God

God started everything. Nothing in existence would be here if God did not create it. That includes physical things, time, sounds, and even colors and emotion. Nothing would be here if it weren't for God. We talk about going back to basics, and the furthest you can get to basics is when God created the universe. Why? Because nothing existed before that. As humans, we often try to go 'back to basics' to see where we went wrong or to try regain perspective. We will never reach a point of total understanding until we realize that everything begins with God. Nothing that we can think of excludes God. It is often easy to get confused or get lost in 'life'. This is because we often mistake things in the middle for things in the beginning. Your story did not start years ago when you were born. It started when God decided so! The fundamental truth that we can learn from this is that for anything to start (our dreams, careers, recovery etc.), we need to start at the true beginning: God. By leaving this out, we are leaving out so much truth that we will eventually get entangled in ideas that are only half-true. By starting with God, you start with true reality. If I want to change my life, do something meaningful or impact the world; it can start with the One. There is no other way that anything can start. By mentally starting with God, I am already on the right track from the get-go. Failing to do so makes me miss out on the reality of what is really going on.

Everything we create is Secondarily Created

Realize that money, music, fame, popularity, success, work, the internet and everything else that we often mentally exclude God from are things that we created OUT OF WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY CREATED. The money I need is just a secondary creation from what God has made. I catch myself worrying about things that are made up from something else. These things are easily made and unmade. Am I worried about the remix of an original, when I know the One who started it all? Why do I worry about anything when I can turn to the One who holds it all?

God is Big

God is so big and powerful that He created the entire universe. This universe is so big that we cannot even calculate it. If you had to write down the number of miles or kilometers that spans the universe, all the paper in the world would not be enough to hold the number! Now imagine a Being creating this huge entity. How big and powerful must this Being be? I thank God that He is big, and He is able. God created more than I will ever be able to comprehend. Surely His hands are big enough to handle my life, my mess and everything connected to me. Mentally separating Him from my life was the problem that got me here in the first place; since everything begins with Him!

The Creator and the Created

When I make a chair out of wood, I have power over it. I can pick it up, turn it upside down, take it apart and turn it onto something else. In the same way, God has total control over everything. My God can do anything. He owns it all. How often does the created exclude the Creator? How can I live a meaningful life without the One who made me? How can anything have meaning without God? Am I more concerned with things that man has created (money), or with the God who created everything?

Time

God created time. He exists out of it. He existed before it, and will exist after it has passed. It is impossible for me to comprehend this because my mind is so small that it cannot hold thoughts that are out of my grasp. I cannot imagine eternity before time. My God exists in eternity. I cannot grasp an idea that is so simply put into words. Yet my God knows it all. This thought shows me how little I know and how limited my thinking actually is. It is therefore only logical for me to hand over the things that I can't explain to Him. He thinks of things that I never will. He knows things that I will never know. Remarkably, I can have access to some of that Greatness by handing it over to God. I will never be able to understand His ways. It can sometimes be a waste of time trying to do so.

Love

These ideas above make the story of Love so much more amazing. This powerful and awesome God is so astounding, yet chooses to love me. The God that created this universe wants to have a relationship with me!? He stepped down into this carnal world to save me from my own mistakes? I can communicate with the God who has all the power!? More amazingly, I have the opportunity to be adopted into His house as His son??? This story of love becomes so much more powerful when I take into account how big and powerful the God that loves me really is.