In the Beginning, God

In the Beginning, God...

That's how the Bible begins in Genesis 1 verse 1. We then read the story of Creation and think of God as this amazing Being, living out where the Hubble telescope gets all those awesome pictures. So very far away. 

But we can take a lesson from those first few words in the Bible as we walk through this life as well. Many times people live through life's circumstances and afterwards make conclusions about God and who He is. Almost as though it is a mathematical formula. My company just laid me off after I worked so many years, threfore how can I believe God really provides for me? My wife found a younger, richer guy and left me, so therefore God misled me, or I wouldn't have thought she was "the one." I was diagnosed with cancer, therefore... My friend was killed in a car wreck, therefore.... I was abused, therefore...

We look at life around us as the first part of the sentence and formulate our answers about an attribute of God, an inherent trait about God's identity. Bad + Bad= God can't be trusted. Bad + Bad = there is no God.

What if we change the formula, "In the Beginning God?" What if we look at everything that is revealed about the character of God in His Word, the Bible, and make the mathematical conclusions starting from there? God has promised that He would supply my every need, therefore, even though I was laid off, He will care for my family. God knows everything, and is all-caring, all-powerful, perfectly just, perfectly kind; therefore even if the wife betrayed me, even if the cancer diagnosis is true, even if my best friend was killed in a car wreck, even if I had a horrible past, even if everything I care about unravels in front of my eyes, even then, I am safe. Because God can take the worst and most unspeakable circumstances and breathe life and His perfect care into them and change them for miraculous good. A good that I cannot even begin to see.

God is all-powerful + Bad=He overrules it for good. God is all-knowing + Bad=His justice will make it right. We have to reverse the equation to arrive at the correct answer. "In the Beginning, God" changes everything. It changes how we look at life and at all the difficulties that we don't understand so that we can have an accurate perspective. Whatever it is you encounter this week, consider it with the right equation, In the Beginning, God.

Though the fig tree should not blossom
         And there be no fruit on the vines,
         Though the yield of the olive should fail
         And the fields produce no food,
         Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
         And there be no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will exult in the LORD,
         I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

(Habbakuk 3:17-18)

This I recall to my mind,
         Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
         For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; 

 Great is Your faithfulness.

(Lamentations 3:21-23)