Category Archives: Genesis

“Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.”

Fact: God could have named the animals He had made, and then said to Adam, “That’s a jackrabbit, and that one over there is a giraffe, and that one is a…” But He didn’t. He included Adam in the work of creation by having him name the animals. This is the first time, but not the last by any means, that God partners with us in the work of His Kingdom. We’ll see it all the way through the bible, including here:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20

But it goes beyond sharing the gospel. Partnering with the Holy Spirit in us, we move mountains, heal the sick, speak truth, care for the broken, and we witness and participate in the healing and restoration of our own lives. God could easily do all of it without us, but He doesn’t. He includes us, and whenever we choose to say “yes” to God, we are choosing to join Him in His work on the earth.

Just as in calling for light and telling oceans where to stop, there are some things in which God chooses to go solo. He invites us to rest, to wait, to be still and to know that He is God. But then He also invites to go, to speak, to pray, to believe, to touch. To be included. To be with Him in the work.

I like questions. They tend to clear my field of vision. So here are the questions that I ask so that I can see how and when God wants to include me.

• Is there someone around me who needs to hear the gospel through my story?
• Is there someone I need to forgive?
• Do I need to repent of something?
• Has He put me in front of a person or a situation that needs my money, my time, or any other resource that I have?
• Has He put an unlovable person in my life for me to love with the love of Christ?
• Do I sense the urgency to pray for someone or a situation?
• Is He sending me to another nation, or to a neighbor?

We have to resist the urge to believe that because we aren’t Billy Graham that God can’t use us. First of all, I don’t like the word “used”. God doesn’t need tools, He chooses to include and entrust people.

There is work to do, a Kingdom to advance. There are hearts to rescue, and healing to be done. There are souls to save, and lives to change and hard people to love and forgive.

We are not left out. He has included us in all of it.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

And I remembered these words:

“For He chose us in Him BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD to be holy and blameless in his sight.”– Ephesians 1:4

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, but was revealed in these last times for your sake”. – 1Peter 1:19-20

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD”. – Matthew 25:34

Before “in the beginning”, Jesus was chosen to be the perfect sacrifice, we were chosen to be made blameless by His blood, and our inheritance was prepared. Much went on before “in the beginning”! God was not deciding what to do as He did it, there was a great plan in motion long before Genesis 1:1. 

It is clear from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 that God is in control of our world. Nothing surprises Him, nothing catches Him off guard. He knows the end from the beginning and every moment in between is His to own, and I believe it is one of the hardest things for us to handle. Most of us are either fighting to get control or we’re overwhelmed because we do not have control. Free-falling is not our comfort zone.

We come to Jesus with a death grip on our lives, and when He begins to pry our fingers back the pain can feel unbearable, so we tighten our grip. We are scrappy, I’ll give us that, but we’ve met our match with God. He will always out scrap us, because He is actually in control, while we live in the illusion of being in control. Sooner or later into everyone’s illusion must come the reality that we are not sovereign, even over our own lives.

My questions to myself, and to you if you are interested, are:

How have I been living as though God is not in control? Where has fear convinced me to tighten my grip? In fact, what is it that I am fearing that is causing the need to get some kind of control? Where is it hard for me to trust God’s sovereignty? What are the areas where I absolutely wish I had sovereignty? These questions take me into the places in my heart where I keep the door closed and remain blissfully unaware of the mess behind it. But when we determine to go deep diving into the Word of God, we find ourselves facing things we’ve ignored.

As thankful as I am that God is sovereign, I know that my flesh still has fancy ideas of being in charge, of deciding what’s best for me and how to get there, and I have to deal with that mess. But I am learning to rest in the free-fall, trusting that the One who is in control is good, always.