Category: Daily Devotionals

And God saw that the light was good.  And God separated the light from the darkness.  Genesis 1:4  ESV

God created and then He divided the light from the darkness.  This is how God worked to develop His creation.  Throughout Genesis, God will separate one thing from another to complete His intentions for creation.

In the spiritual, He does the same.  The Hebrew word for ‘separated’ means ‘set apart.’  He created a people, for Himself, and then separated them from other nations.

Is this not what God does for me and every other child He saves?  He created us for Himself and then separated us from the world.  We are different, we are His.  We are saved – not unsaved, believers – not unbelievers. 

The process of delivering me from sin and to set me apart will continue for the rest of my life.  The Word, bringing light, exposes evil.  When I see it or sense it, I feel a strong reaction.  I am repelled, even if I don’t understand all of it, and deal with it as God leads me.  I am usually led one of three ways.  I speak against it, pray about it, or walk away from it.

What are the rewards? If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. John 1:7. Those who have been called out of darkness, who savor the narrow way, have a fellowship that is so profound, it defies explaining it to someone who has never experienced it.  We are not separated into isolation – though it may initially feel like that as our conversion brings strong reactions from loved ones, even rejection.  We may lose family and friends, but we gain another family for eternity.  We are separated into a new fellowship, a kind that the world cannot offer. The Spirit, which unites us, dances between us and we feel the rhythm.   

I’m set apart and am not ashamed of the Gospel.  Amen

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  Genesis 1:3  ESV

I am struck with a sense of wonder over a God who can say, “Let there be light.” and light appears.  Who can compare to Him?  Any of us can say, “Let there be light.” for the next twenty years but nothing will come of it. 

The God who can speak something and cause it to happen is driven by love and compassion.  Such omnipotence, restrained and released out of holiness, can be trusted.  If God were unloving, how frightening His power would be!  He could, if He wanted, end our lives with a breath.  Oh, but He holds us safely in His powerful hands.  King David said, “Your gentleness has made me great.” Psalm 18:35  

The light God created in Genesis was a physical light that illumined our planet.  But He is not limited to miracles only in the physical realm.  There is spiritual light too.  God declared that light would shine in the human heart so that a man or woman could see the glory of Jesus.  “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  2 Cor. 4:6   When God turns the light on, spiritual blindness is instantly cured.

“Let there be light” rolls off my tongue repeatedly in prayer.  I pray it in all kinds of circumstances. 

• When someone I care about has not yet trusted Jesus as their Savior, I ask God to declare over their darkened understanding, ‘Let there be light.’
• When I am faced with a tumultuous set of circumstances for which I have no clarity, I ask for God to bring all the pieces into the light for clarification and definition.
• When the sins of others are hidden, I ask God to let what is hidden be revealed, to turn the light on so truth can be seen.

God’s Word has so many stunning layers of application.  When God speaks, no one and no thing can minimize or nullify its effects.  May God declare light today in your world in whatever ways you need to see the shadows flee.  

The words You spoke that put the earth on its rotation in space are no more powerful than the words You speak over me through the power of Your Spirit.  I am humbled by Your investment.  Amen

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  Genesis 1:2 ESV

Our earth originally had no order.  The darkness that is described in Genesis is not something void of light.  Darkness doesn’t even mean evil.  It means that everything was in original chaos.  It didn’t stay that way.  It was about to be overcome by the power of God’s Spirit.  Earth would never be the same.  The chaotic would become ordered and functional.  What had been dead would pulsate with stirrings of life.

There have often been segments of my life that were chaotic.  Things swirling.   Disorderly.   There appeared to be no way to set things right.  A relationship was dysfunctional at every angle.  Certain events occurred that threw normalcy into confusion and I had absolutely no control over them.  There was no peace.

If someone asked me what was wrong, I would try to find the words to describe the chaos.  I would usually give up and just say that things were messed up.  Such is the nature of the chaotic.

My turmoil needed the hovering Spirit of God.  He awaited my invitation to come and, like a mother eagle, hover over my disordered and poorly functioning world.  The Word of God entered my chaos like sharp arrows of clarity; one after another until things began to clear.  God, my Teacher and Counselor, began to breathe into my life.

If a soil sample of our formless earth had been put under a microscope, there would have been no sign of life.  But when the Spirit of God came and hovered, the brown wilderness began to morph into a green wonderworld.  That’s because wherever the Spirit of God hovers, the landscape changes.

I make a hovering prayer part of my New Year.  Come to every situation that begs the breath of Your Spirit.  Transform my parched landscapes.  Amen

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1  ESV

When I set out to create something, I begin with pre-existing pieces.  To make a cake, I will have a list of ingredients that already exist.  If I mold a piece of pottery, there must be clay to mold.  I am only an artisan, but God is a Creator.  He made the earth out of nothing.  There was only a void for a canvas.   If He wanted water, He had to make water where there had been nothingness.  Water didn’t even have a name!

This is what makes God ~ God.   He works with omnipotent power.  He has not changed with time.  His power has not diminished.  This same creative God of Genesis spoke again through the prophet Isaiah and said, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:19  Once again, something out of nothing.  His power is displayed time and time again in the events of my life. 

Throughout my life, I have stood on this powerful truth in prayer. My Father can bring something about when I see absolutely no evidence that such a thing will ever exist.  He can bring reconciliation when there is hatred.  He can bring repentance when there is stubborn rebellion.  He can bring opportunity when others haven’t yet thought of it.  He can bring provision when cupboards are empty.  He can bring hope to the hopeless and honor to the shamed. In destitution, He creates plenty.  In nothingness, abundance springs forth.

Let me ask you ~ What needs to be created that, as of now, doesn’t exist?  If we are God’s, His power and promises are at work over the expanse of our lives, over the deep and the unseen. 

 Speak Your Word over my life and bring into existence what is not yet there yet.  When it appears, I will fall to my knees in worship.  Amen

In the beginning God… Genesis 1:1a ESV 

Knowing where we come from has become of more important to us in recent years.  With websites like Ancestry, 23andMe, and Cryigenics, it’s possible to trace our histories like never before.  I can’t count how many meals I’ve shared with people who are anxious to talk about the discoveries they’ve made.  They are animated as they tell from whom, and from where, their family originated. Questions they’ve had about themselves often disappear as they discover that they are not alone and, in fact, are quite like their families of origin. They will deeply connect with great, great grandparents and explore family heirlooms, journals, and pictures to see what they can learn.  Old photos are restored and hung on the walls.  Journal pages are displayed in scrapbooking projects

Along with feeling validated are also the discoveries about depravity in their family lines.  Seasons of prayer follow as they ask God to sanctify what needs cleansing.  They seek freedom from predispositions to certain patterns of sin, not only for themselves but for their children, and their children.  

If I’m willing to live by faith, I can believe that my beginnings are rooted in someone earlier than Adam.  “In the beginning God…”   Before the likes of someone like Adam ever existed, God was there.  He is the foundation of everything created and not yet created.  He is ordered.  He is structured.  He is holy.  He is trustworthy.  Behind every genealogy is a Person, not nothingness. 

To understand who I am, I must know where I came from.  And I must know why I was created.  I can’t ask a four-hundred-year-old ancestor such a question, but I can ask someone who is called the Ancient of Days.  He’s talking.  And He’s answered my deepest questions in the revealed Scriptures because the Word doesn’t withhold critical information from His creation.  My journey through Genesis will give shape and form to my personal history.

The internet provides access to Ancestry.com.  The Scriptures do better than that.  They provide access to Ancestry.God

My history began in the cradle of Your heart.  You created me. Write Your story of Genesis in my heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Messiah] comes.  Genesis 49:10

If I look for a human being to emulate, Joseph is always a good choice.  His fidelity to God amidst great suffering has inspired us down through the ages.  Of all of Jacob’s sons, Joseph gets the most attention.  Yet, it is not from the line of Joseph that Jesus was born.  The extremely flawed sons of Jacob didn’t mess things up so badly that God disqualified them from His blessing.  The promises of God prevailed over sin. 

What was the purpose of Joseph’s life?  To save Judah and His descendants.  If Joseph had not assumed a place of power in Egypt, he could not have brought his father and brothers to a place of abundance.  Jacob and all of his descendants would have perished in the great famine.  It’s hard for us to grasp that Joseph was used by God to save a brother who had sold him into slavery.  It seems twisted.

But God is wild and wonderful.  He is also unpredictable.  He exalts the likes of Judah.  He blesses adulterers like King David.  He forgives betrayers like Peter.  He saves persecutors and murderers like Paul.  Judah, at the end of his life, offered to give his own for the life of another brother.  His father, Jacob, lived long enough to see Judah choose righteousness. The common thread in all of these stories was a heart of repentance.  God’s forgiveness was, and is, so radical that an entire past is put under His atoning blood.

No family is perfect. In the past few days, I’ve heard from more than a few who say that they have not seen their grandchildren in years. They grieve over that and feel embarrassed in public when others ask if they have children and grandchildren. Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to them? Is it relevant to us in the very places we long to see the righteousness of God revealed in the lives of our family members? Oh yes.

This Christmas, as we hear the Christmas story and are tempted to zone out at the reading of the lineage of Jesus, let’s wake up and sit on the edge of our seat.  When Judah’s name is mentioned, we can rejoice that God works in family messes.  No one is out of His reach.  We should never stop praying for forthcoming repentance.  God is good for every promise He has made.

For every family ‘Joseph’, there are tears of joy.  For every family ‘Judah’, there are tears of faith.  You are God over every family drama that is brought to your feet in prayer.  Amen