Thankful today for my good buddy Dylan who saw this gold and sent it my way! Beyond excited to share it with you because in this image, there is a message that comes from SOOO deep in the mine!!!! What a piece of GOD GOLD and how fitting for the time and circumstances we are in! Stay strong, stay safe, and lean in! God is up to something right now and knowing God, it’s going to be BIG!!!! Have an awesome day!
‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ‘
Genesis 1:1-3
I want to share with you something that has really been an awakening or revival in my life and my goal with this message is for it to be the same, if not even greater for you in your daily walk with the Lord.
The early part of this week I spent sick and out of commission from my usual daily routine of work and life. It gave me some time to think, reflect, and take a look at my life, where I was really doing well, where I was struggling, and where God wanted me to invest more of myself into. It’s hard to explain exactly how to explain what word to describe this personal revelation but I will tell you that having a couple of days of nothing, literally laying there, thinking and reading, it gave me plenty of time to be still, to listen to God’s voice and actually listen, where hearing and action is involved. The biggest thing that hit me was this idea of focusing on how I “start.’
For me this kind of “start” of change could have been in A LOT of different areas but what I learned is, I find myself always trying to be “better” or more successful in all the areas I struggle but at the end of the day, it’s impossible to make change happen in ten different places all at once. What I’ve found from God recently is to “start” first with how I come to Him, how I enter into His Word, prayerfully read over His Word and spend time not just reading or checking off the boxes to get done with this quiet time, but being intentional here in this time with God. I have always been so focused on the “finish” or the results that I have completely overlooked the “start,” which I’ve seen just in a few days that this area is the most important part.
I honestly didn’t know where to start but God showed me to start my day with Him. In spending quiet time with Him I’m always bouncing around the Bible like a child all hyped up on candy, but it only seemed right if I was going to work on my “start,” then I better just start at the beginning.
Genesis 1:1. I have read these verses before and even had the thoughts what can I really gain from this? But like always, God was standing by waiting to blow my mind.
So these were my notes and I hope this is a big encouragement to you today!
Sometimes we have to step back and start back at the beginning, not just in the Word, but in our relationship with God, back to the basics, the foundation of our faith. I mean look at what is first created? “The Heavens and the Earth.” The foundation in which we literally find our feet on as you read this. It’s this truth for every single area of our lives, just as God created the heavens and the earth first, the foundation, we must seek to start every decision, every thought and action with God. We must first focus and go to our foundation that God has built with us, that’s how we start everyday and that’s where life starts for us. Even though we would love to look ahead a few verses to the end result, look first at what had to be created first for any of that other cool stuff to even be possible. God wants us to go back to the beginning, set aside your want for progress and forward movement in your life, step back and start with God, on the foundation you have with Him, that’s how God begins to create in our lives!
We also the earth was many things that we are without God’s hand involved, “Without form, void, and darkness was over the earth. Without God this is exactly where we find ourselves, without form, our lives begin to be out of control and messy, going every way imaginable but straight and formed. Empty. Also, we can find ourselves feeling empty when our lives don’t start with God in every single thing we do and every moment we live. The moment we look away or try to find something else to create that sense of fullness that only God can create, we find ourselves void, empty. And of course just imagine the times you’ve spent trying to create outcomes in your life, create change, or doing anything in your own power apart from God. Darkness is present. I know when darkness is present because I can’t see anything, we are fumbling around, not knowing which direction to go, why?? Because it’s dark!!!
But we see how God, only God, can create new things from literally nothing. That is what’s so beautiful about our relationship with God. We have nothing to give, in comparison to Him, we are nothing, but when God arrives in our life for the first time or when we start with God each day and moments throughout the day, God does what only He can do. He creates something wildly beautiful our of our nothing. And just think of all the nothing you have and all the nothing you bring to the table, now think about all that God has brought to your life, created in your life, like family, friends, faith and love. Think about all the ways God has created moments where He uses you to impact someone else in a major way. The list goes on but geez man!!! Spend a minute and give God some much deserved thanks for all He’s created in your life from your nothing!! Ain’t God good!!!!
Most of all, this is the BIGGEST lesson. It’s this big perspective boost and truth that EVERYTHING, literally EVERYTHING starts with God and His Word. This world began at the sound of God’s Word. Without God we face nothing but emptiness, darkness, and living messy lives without form. It’s this truth that has set a strong foundation for myself and I pray it can do the same for you, everything started with God and His Word, so everything in my life must start FIRST, before all else with God and His Word. He’s the only way, only He can create because He is the Creator of all.
Trust first in this truth in the start of all you do, all your words, actions and thoughts, start here:
That’s pretty simple right??? Well, it’s so simple that it can be even easier to overlook. This truth puts our lives and everything we do in the order it should be, God is creator and I am creation. As we serve everyday, it starts with that truth and that truth alone. I have spent so much time trying to create so much in my life, change, results, success, but it’s impossible without stepping back to the foundation of all we do and realizing this simple truth. God is Creator, I am creation. It’s in that order that we were created and in that order that we must start there, for all the results, change and anything else in our lives can only be created by God, the Creator. So if that’s your struggle today, you worry about the million different things you need to change about yourself, you worry about reaching that peak of success or what the finished product will be like. Just stop right where you are and start at the beginning, the foundation, the truth that EVERYTHING STARTS WITH GOD AND NOTHING WAS STARTED WITHOUT GOD!!!!
“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.”
Genesis 22:1-3
Back into the story where Abraham is called to sacrifice his son Isaac. I found this little gold nugget while studying over this passage recently and I pray it can be a big time blessing for you today!
There is so much that can be taken from this passage in Genesis 22, geez….God’s Word is jam packed with AWESOME life-changing truth straight from Him. What we see here is God testing Abraham. It’s crazy how each and every day God allows us to be in situations that test us, you would think a loving God such as Him would never let His children go through something difficult right? Well, that’s where we’re wrong. That’s the beautiful part about our relationship with God. He allows us to be tested and go through situations that are too much for us to handle so in result we are stretched, our faith is strengthened in WHO God is and the fact that we need God BIG time in every moment of our lives, not just these moments of testing. Just think if God didn’t allow us to go through tests and trials, we would never get better, stronger, more prepared for the BIGGER and TOUGHER battles ahead. But because of God’s love for us is so great, He allows for us to go this daily process of testing, and through our failures and successes God opens us up a bit more in each test to see more and more of His truth that is the truth that sets us free as we grow deeper in our understanding of Him.
It’s interesting after reading this the first time, it seems that Abraham has it all figured out, WOW, what great faith he has right?? For God to tell him to go and sacrifice his most prized possession in this way THEN, what does Abraham do. Not even a hint of hesitation, he is off on the obedient road following God at His Word. Wow, Abraham seems like he has it all together right. Well….not so fast. As a man of God who is much more mature in his faith once said, “context is everything.”
When looking into the chapters before this one, we see that Abraham’s journey hasn’t always been marked by traveling down the road of obedience. God had called Abraham to do many different things and in this testing, there was many different occasions that Abraham was disobedient and failed the test. So big note to take, it’s not about Abraham, it’s about how God has used his failures to grow him deeper in his faith in God, deeper in his understanding of who God is and the simple truth that Abraham can’t do this life without the Almighty at the lead. So after many failures and successes on his journey, we see God give this test, and unlike some of the other times in his past, Abraham wasted NO TIME to be obedient.
Literally, we see here that “early the next morning,” Abraham was up and off on the road to obedience. We don’t see any hesitation, we don’t see any verses where Abraham questioned God or through in his opinion, he just went without thinking twice. Think about how hard that would be? To be told to go sacrifice your only son, the son that you have waited years and years to have, wouldn’t you want to petition this wild test from God?? I’ll be honest, I would. I would have so many questions, I would be so scared, and I would have so much pull here to be disobedient and go my way over God’s way.
The cool thing is, Abraham sets an example for us here, it’s obvious to see how he has learned from past mistakes of not following God’s lead as quickly as he should have, and through those failures, God used them as teaching moments that have led up to this one moment of testing right in front of him. As much as we would see all the credit for this going to Abraham, it’s what Abraham didn’t do that was the biggest lesson for us. Abraham didn’t do all the regular human things that we would usually do in that situation. What am I talking about? Just take some inventory on your day, how many things and moments do you leave on the table that God has made clear is the right thing to do or say but, our fear comes in, our doubt and insecurities, and even more so our excuses come in, and we do all the regular human things. We question God if He is sure that this is what He wants us to do? We make up stories in our heads that sound good to us but in reality they are just twisting the truth of what we should be doing to make us feel better about not being obedient.
The biggest part of our regular human response when God calls us to do something, is simply PROCRASTINATION. As a world-class and long time procrastinator, I can tell you first hand that it’s an easy business to get caught up in! All it takes a little bit of doubt, a few excuses and some fear to move out of our comfort zone and we have a recipe for procrastinating. Procrastinating is easy to do, and the painful truth is that we do it with SO MANY different areas of our lives. Even on a much smaller scale than Abraham’s mission here, think about all the times God calls you to speak a kind or encouraging word to someone. You know what I’m talking about, the moments when something urges you to say something with love to someone but for whatever reason you fight back those words and avoid it all together. There is a million different moments like this on the daily and only you know what they are in your life. But I want to challenge you here to take some inventory on those moments and dig into find the truth of what holds you back to do the right thing, to walk down the road of obedience with no hesitation? That’s the lesson here, when we put ourselves in the way, we get in the way and miss out on all the awesome God moments that are being opened up for us to walk in right in front of us. Even if our excuse is, I’ll do it tomorrow, why wait??? When the Godly thing to do is staring you in the face, that means RIGHT NOW!!!
How do we not have hesitation and procrastinate these things that God calls us to do that are way outside our comfort zones, from the little examples to the BIG ones???
Y-O-U. Y. It’s ourselves that cause the problems. What’s the answer? Well look at Abraham’s response here. No hesitation, no second thoughts, no questions or excuses, no procrastinating, just obedience. That’s what happens when we live yielded to God’s presence in our lives. We don’t spend time contemplating and wasting on why we should or shouldn’t we just see truth and by the Holy Spirit’s guidance we move obediently in faith. Where does that come from? It doesn’t come all at once, it comes from failing a few times along this journey and in those failings, being humbled to see and come to a deeper understanding of WHO God is. Abraham doesn’t question, doesn’t make excuses or any of that because he is standing under the truth of who God is, that He is all-knowing, always faithful, always working things for good, and always there to provide for us no matter how hard the test becomes. God is in control and God has us. Abraham knows that, Abraham walks in that. It’s not what Abraham did here that’s amazing, it’s what he didn’t do that is so wildly uncommon for us to fathom in our lives.
Let’s be tested and moved by this lesson from God, let’s not waste one more moment or opportunity to procrastinate when we know that God is great!!!! He’s got you, He’s got this uncomfortable situation, and He is going to work it for good, just trust HIM and WHO He is then move in that. Nothing spectacular about it, it’s simple, we just like to make it harder than it has to be. When God says go, just go. What He has in store, you won’t know til you move in it but from knowing who God is, I can promise you it’s going to be AWESOME!!!
‘After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord , because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” ‘
Genesis 22:1-18
‘Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” ‘
Genesis 3:1-9
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