From Rachel's Heart...
Monday, January 3, 2011
It has been awhile since I have blogged. The Christmas season sure was busy and I did not find a lot of time to blog. For that, I apologize. Wendy & I have plans for how we are going to change the website a bit and be able to blog a little more often and weave them into our daily devotions. Hopefully, this will allow us to share our personal stories, our experiences, and our hearts as we walk through Scripture together.
I am really excited to share with you some of the things I have been thinking about and reading lately. As we mentioned in Friday’s devotion, we are joining Wendy Pope in a 1-year chronological reading of the Bible. I am very excited about this and look forward to reading the Bible this way. I also look forward to sharing with you some of the things that strike me as I read through.
Obviously, since we are at the beginning of the year, we are reading in Genesis right now. And in the first part of Genesis, I was struck by something that I had not noticed before. If you have your Bible nearby, then read through Genesis 1 right now. Do you notice how many times it says that God created something and then said that it was good? He created light and saw that it was good (1:4). He created land and seas and saw that it was good (1:10). He created plants and trees and saw that it was good (1:12). He created the stars and saw that it was good (1:18). He created fish and birds and saw that it was good (1:21). He created the animals and saw that it was good (1:25). He looked at everything that he had made and saw that it was very good (1:31).
Now, I have noticed before how often God saw that his creation was good. But, what struck me this time when I read it (and Wendy Pope actually mentioned it as striking her too), was where all this good came from.
Did you notice what God created all of this good from?
In Genesis 1:1, it says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And, in verse 2 it says that the earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. Don’t skip over that too fast, girlfriends. Read verse 2 again. The earth was formless, empty, and full of darkness. And then, out of this formless, empty, darkness, God created so much good.
As I read this, I was struck by how much good that God can do. And, he can do it from nothingness. From darkness. From emptiness.
Do you feel like you are in darkness right now? Do you feel hopeless, empty, or void? Well girlfriends, I have some amazing news for you today. God can create so much good from your dark place. He can take nothingness and emptiness and make splendid things.
God created a beautiful and amazing world from darkness. And, he can create a beautiful, amazing world from your darkness too. You only have to ask him into your darkness and ask him to create splendor as only he can. And, when he creates good from your darkness, I guarantee you sisters that it will be inconceivable. It will be as brilliant as a sunset or the waves upon the shoreline or a summer night full of stars. In fact, as we see in I Corinthians 2:9, our eyes, our ears, nor our minds can conceive all of the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
Girlfriends, believe that God can create good from your darkness today. And, invite him into it and ask him to create something marvelous and inconceivably good.
