So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 ESV
The story of creation is a foundational part of the narrative by which we can understand our own lives and God’s cosmic purposes that are unfolding around us. Our deepest inclinations, greatest longings, fiercest objections, biggest hopes, and deepest fears can all be explained by the way in which God originally created the world. When God first created the world, the cosmos revealed God’s glorious character. Even now, as a reflection of God himself, the created world reveals the truth about who God is. Despite its current sinful state, creation still gives echoes of a good and perfect world that once existed. In fact, the present world groans and longs to be fully restored to a state of perfect bliss. Crucial for establishing believers in a life of correct faith and godly living, the narrative that recounts the origins of the world is vital to the life of a Christian disciple.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28 ESV
Studying the creation story will help us learn about truth, goodness, beauty, freedom, justice, and dignity. As realities fundamental to human experience, these truths form a solid foundation for a full and flourishing life. For all people, the breathtaking narrative that recounts God creating the world reminds people that humans are created beings who must answer to their Creator. As we live in this broken world, the creation account in Genesis 1:1–2:3 is as hopeful as it is instructive. It reminds us of God’s certain promises to rescue the world from the pain of its present condition through an amazing work of recreation, restoration, and renewal. Even in the story of creation, God calls people to himself, summoning them out of the destruction of the present to fully participate in God’s redemptive work of new creation.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
gENESIS 1:31
Today’s Prayer: “I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold… Praise be to the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me… Part your heavens, LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you, to the One who gives victory to kings… Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 18:1-2, 144:1-2, 5-10, 15). In Jesus’ name, amen. https://hope14me.org/weekly-devotion/
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