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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

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:18 

What a package of explosive potential lay in the manger.  He was the little Lamb and the little Shepherd, each one offering life altering implications for those who needed a Lamb to be slain for their sin and for those who needed a shepherd to show them the way home. Baby Jesus would do far more than that though.

He was also the little Reconciler who had the power to bring together two enemies and make them, not only compatible but, intimate.  Reconciliation rarely has such stunning outcomes.  It is one thing to bring together two parties who are at odds over an issue.  It is quite another thing to cause two people, far apart in every way, to eagerly join hands and become one in their mind and heart.

Oh, how deep was this fracture in the Garden of Eden.  God had made man perfectly.  It was man who wanted more, who bought the serpent’s lie, and then opened their mind to evil.  It was a world mankind was not created to understand nor be compatible with.  Evil corrupted him and he began to choose everything that God wouldn’t choose and to think all the things God wouldn’t think. Alienation ensued and the two were separated by a great gulf.  Holiness could not reconcile with sinfulness without a miracle.  God’s answer?  Send a Reconciler who would also be the Lamb to forgive their sin and restore them to what they once were ~ holy before God.  Jesus would be the game changer.   Perfected natures would not want to sin and would indeed hate sin.  Man’s mind would be washed completely of defilement.  He would think and feel like the indwelling Spirit who inhabited him.

The baby didn’t automatically reconcile enemies at His birth.  God’s timetable moves slowly.  It took thousands of years for God to send this Lamb.  It would take thirty-three years more for the Lamb to die for the sins that separated creation from His Father.  But how necessary the three decades were.  The only way for people to trust the Lamb and forsake their sin would be to know Him.  They would watch Him live and hear Him speak. They would experience Him through direct interaction.  His Light would woo the sinner and warm up their icy relationship.  Light would draw some to His Father and repel others.  Not all would hate their sin and mourn the estrangement.

Ah, but for the ones who did, for them it would be different.  The great gulf that separated them from their Creator would break their heart.  They would own their sin that caused the breach and trust the Lamb to bring them to the foot of His cross.  His blood would wash them clean and present them faultless to His Father. Complete compatibility.  Impeccable restoration. Perfect reconciliation.  

If there is tension in our relationship, it can be fixed now by the One who still reconciles.  Thank you, Jesus. Amen

My soul magnifies the Lord. Luke 1:46

Words of faith do not originate from a vacuum. What spills out during the times when I am stretched to my limit reflects the kind of faith I have previously cultivated. A well known bible teacher said, “Who I am when hard times hit is really who I am.” True! The words I speak during my most painful moments are mirrors that reflect the foundation of my life. Hannah endured the scourge of barrenness. When the divine hand of God finally touched her, she delivered a famous discourse that spanned a dozen verses. It is one of the most prophetic passages in all of scripture.

Elizabeth also suffered the heartache of being childless, yet through it, she also cultivated her faith. She learned the Word of God, built the precepts of it into the fabric of her life, and when God visited her with a child in her old age, she also rose to prophesy. (And, she was the first to recognize the Messiah, though just a 3 month-old baby in Mary’s womb!)

Eloquence is not confined to adults. Mary was merely a teenager when an angel visited her. Given a task that would have crushed most grownups, she also rose up to deliver the famous Magnificat. The fact that such words could flow from a twelve-year-old is an indication that her childhood was also spent learning the scriptures. She didn’t just speak shallow words of praise. She also highlighted the ‘ways of God’ that could only be known by one who had reviewed God’s dealings with His people throughout Israel’s history.

Human nature wants to coast during the good times, only drawing close to God when the fires of adversity get hot. God is gracious and will certainly answer us whenever we cry out for help, but there is a better way. I can fortify my heart today by the choices I make with my time. If I make sure to feed my spirit through careful study of the Word of God, through listening in prayer, through deliberate searching of God’s heart in matters great and small, I create a storehouse of spiritual food that will serve me well when there’s famine. When hunger and thirst visit my front door, I will not be shocked to no longer hear hopeless and fearful words come out of my mouth. What spills out will be the sweet waters of faith.

I walk in the shoes of Hannah, of Elizabeth, and of Mary. Their footsteps are easy to see, but hard to follow, yet I choose their narrow path. In Jesus’ name, Amen

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35

God’s Spirit hovered over Mary and she conceived. Nine months later, she gave birth to the Son of God. This intimate gesture of overshadowing ushered her into her most holy calling as the mother of Jesus.

The Spirit of God must still overshadow the saints today if they are to give birth to their most holy callings. There can be no conception of a call without communion. For years, I thought I was in touch with God’s will for my life, and in fact, I prayed for it earnestly. But what was missing was intimacy with God.

Jesus said, “He who believes in me, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The word for innermost being in the original language is ‘womb’. Through every child, God wants to birth something for the kingdom. Something holy is to proceed from their spiritual womb. What is it? The only way to know is to be intimate with Him. There is something about the redemption of our story that is unique. Out of our individual brokenness, and out of the way He speaks His healing Word to those desolate places, will emerge our calling. When He reveals it to each of us, it fits like a glove. Praise, worship, and unspeakable joy are the result. These are our versions of the Magnificat.

To discover my purpose, I must be intimate. To know how to walk in it, I must be intimate. To transcend the challenges that come with a calling, I must be intimate. Any kingdom work done without intimacy is powerless.

Be large over my life. I am your handmaiden. Amen

It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’  And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’  Isaiah 44:28

As we continue to watch current events, it’s instinctive to ask God where He is in all of it.  Oh, how Isaiah’s voice reassures us in our fears.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he predicted the coming of Cyrus to deliver God’s people from exile.  At the time of this writing, Cyrus was not even born yet.  It would be another 200 years before he arrived on the scene to do precisely what God said He would. 

God had predicted Israel’s defeat and capture before they were carried off into captivity.  God had predicted, with great detail, what exile would be like and how they were to survive it.  Now through Isaiah, God predicted their deliverance through a foreign ruler the likes of Cyrus.  He had always been their God and He is still waiting to fulfill more prophecies concerning future events. 

No one changes the courses of God’s Word.  This inspires holy fear, respect, and worship for who He is.  His prediction of Cyrus comforts us since life has taken a turn and our immediate future is uncertain.  Just as surely as I’m writing this, He knows the nature of our exiles and deliverances.  The names of those who will shape our future are already pre-chosen. All is on schedule to lead us to glory. 

Just as God has foreknowledge of the main characters which comprise the leadership of world governments, He also has foreknowledge of every single detail which comprise our lives.  He spoke our name long before we existed, called us by name at our moment of re-birth, and will speak our name again when He welcomes us home.  Our past, present, and future was written with red ink and not one step (though uncertain as it may seem for us) causes Him to worry about us. 

He is the God who dismantles and the God who re-builds.  He is the God who wounds and the God who comforts.  He is the God of the faithful and the God of the exiles.  In these days when anger and fear make up our global emotional climate, we trust a Father who whispers, “Don’t be afraid.”  Our life does not begin and end with deliberate, even erratic actions, of powerful people.  God’s scepter of justice holds them in check. 

Your people are written, prophetically, into these days.  Let us rise up to carry out the work of an ambassador with confidence and joy.  Amen

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.  Isaiah 40:30

In WWII, Japan surrendered to American forces and yet the news of the surrender took weeks and months to reach isolated Japanese garrisons.  Soldiers continued to fight.  Men continued to die.  Those who were ignorant of Japan’s surrender were caught in the ‘not yet’.

I have often been confused by the promises of God.  He is my healer.  Does that mean that I will never know a sick period?  He is my deliverer.  Does that mean that I will never know a season of oppression?  He is the God who avenges.  Does that mean that He will settle all scores on the heels of wrongdoing?  He is my strength.  Does that mean that I will never languish in seasons of weakness?  He is my shield.  Does that mean that I will never be wounded by fiery arrows?  He is my comfort.  Does that mean that I will never feel alone or forsaken?  I can get tripped up when I’m in a prolonged ‘not yet’ period.

Solomon said it another way in his well-known discourse.  “There is an appointed time for everything.  A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.  A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.”  Ecclesiastes 3

Without listening to God, I cannot guess which season I am in.  I can easily become an agent that works against God’s purposes.  I’ll try to preserve what God is dismantling.  I’ll try to bring something to a close when it’s ready to be launched into a new fruitfulness. I’ll comfort when I should exhort.  The Christian life is a faith-walk and we live against the backdrop of human need and impaired spiritual vision.  

Lord, you strengthen the fiber of my faith in the ‘not yet’.  I ‘know that I know’ that You will fulfill every promise when the time is right. Amen

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.  Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”  Isaiah 43:10

What is that that convinces me that God is God and there is no other God but Him?  Will someone else’s testimony do it?  Perhaps temporarily.  Will exhaustive study of the scriptures do it?  Not really, though study of the Word will be the doorway to my faith.  

The truth is ~ I must experience that ‘God is God and there is no other’ in my own life.  I can’t coast on secondhand faith, on the stories of my father and mother, on the narratives of past heroes of the faith.  God has to be larger than life to me!  How does that happen?  Only as I have need of Him.  Only as other gods leave me empty.  Only when stakes are high and impossible odds are staring me in the face will I look for God to move personal mountains.  When He does, the passion of my own testimony is born. 

A long life spent with Jesus has birthed many God-stories.  If you’ve gotten these devotionals over the course of years, you know some of them.  The more times He saved me, the more I was convinced of whom I believed.  The greater the deliverance, the more my faith grew.  And it’s a good thing.  The faith tests just get steeper and steeper the older I get.  What I trusted God for at 40 does not resemble what I have to trust God for today.  The way home to glory is an upward climb. 

The stunning thing about this scripture is that God chose me to be a witness to His power and glory.  Because I was hand-picked (as you were if you’re reading this), my personal story is being crafted to bring about great need.  There is mystery in all of this.  With every need, I might assume that there is a heavenly fix.  I can easily look to God to instantly repair everything that breaks.  Sometimes He does.  Sometimes, He defers the answer until glory.  What do I get in its place?  HIM!  Love, compassion, and grace.  And in this broken world, perhaps the latter is the strength of my witness.  I need God more than I need His power to fix the messes of my life.  The real dilemma always is this ~ when God withholds the breakthrough but gives me more of Himself, do I see Him as the greater gift?  

Yes. Amen