Genesis 1:31

Verse of the Day Devotion: Genesis 1:31 

“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” – Genesis 1:31 

This verse is the wrap-up of the creation of all things.  After He created the heavens and the earth and  all things on the earth.  He created light and darkness as well as the waters and every separation of the waters we see.

After this, He created all life that resides in the waters, along with the birds that fly above the earth.  He created the large animals in the sea, which the author calls the great sea monsters, that swim in the great seas.  Then He said “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:1:24-25.   Then He created man.  “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:26-27.  After this, as our focus verse says, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31

After God did all this, man then fell.  All the good things that He prepared for them unfortunately was degraded through the temptation of the serpent and their acceptance of its words.  Suddenly, things were not as perfect as they were.  They were removed from the beautiful garden God had made and were not allowed to enter again.  Adam was now required to work hard for all they needed for God cursed the ground.  They would fight through weeds and thistles in order to gather their produce.  And the woman would now have increased pain in childbirth.  This was not what God originally created, but due to sin, it is what I has become.

Now, none of this was a surprise to God.  For He had a plan even before all this happened.  “All who dwell on the earth will worship him (the beast), everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” Revelation 13:8.  Those whose names are in the Lambs Book of Life from before the beginning are those who would accept Christ as Savior.  Remember, God knows the end from the beginning. “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure” Isaiah 46:10.  Therefore, He knows whose names are there from the beginning.

So, because of all this, God will create a new Heaven and Earth for all believers.  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” Revelation 21:1.  Then “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4.  What God created in Genesis 1 and 2 was good and would have been a wonderful place had man not rebelled.  However, that which is written in Revelation 21 is far better.  Those destined for here have given everything to God and have accepted the work of Christ.  Therefore, this will be a far more wonderful place, for this is our eternal home of peace and love and joy. 

I believe that when this creation is finished, the beginning of our focus verse will occur again.  “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31a.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries. 

Psalm 5:3

Verse of the Day Devotion: Psalm 5:3 

“In the morning, O LORD, you will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” – Psalm 5:3  

Psalm 5 is a psalm of David.  As we proceed here, you will see this is considered a morning prayer, one that is used to start the day. David starts by asking God to hear his prayer.  “Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning.” Psalm 5:1. He pleas with God to hear the words of his prayer, not simply the words from his mouth, but the meditations, the groanings of his heart. The word groanings refers to whispers, murmurings and musings; those things which are not necessarily said but felt. 

Next, “Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray.” Psalm 5:2. He is asking God to assist and help him.  He calls out to God to hear him, to attend to his cries for help, acknowledging the one who he is praying to as his king and his God. He is crying out only to Him and no one else.  For he understands that the true God who he serves is the one who hears him and answers his prayers.  He does not call out to any idol or false god, only to the true God and creator of all.

He then, in our focus verse, declares these prayers in the morning, as soon as he wakes up he calls out to God.  Notice that this is not so much a prayer of request but a prayer of resolution.  You will hear my voice.  I will direct my prayer to you.  And I will eagerly watch for your answer for I know it will come and I will rejoice over it. 

I believe this is a wonderful example of how we should communicate with God.  We should take the morning when we first wake up to spend this time with our King and our God.  We should cry out to Him with our words and open ourselves to present our hearts and minds to Him.  Often, we do not have words to express our feelings, our pain and disappointments, our failings and regrets.  However, we should not attempt to hide these for He does hear our words as well as our groanings and inward thoughts.  We must understand we cannot hide anything from Him.  He knows our requests, needs, hurts and failings long before we were even born, for He knows the end from the beginning. 

And as we look at our focus verse, we must declare to ourselves that He absolutely will hear our voice.  There can be no question regarding this.  And not only our words, but our feelings as well.  He will not close His ears to us.  John put it this way. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” 1 John 5:13-15. 

Lets make the first thing we do when we wake up be going before God and spending concerted time in prayer. Let us lift up to Him our needs, fears, thoughts and feelings knowing that He hears us and loves us.  And then anxiously await His answer.  Do not only look for what we want or expect as His answer, but also what we may not expect.  He knows what is best, and we must take His answer and run with it, rejoicing as we go forward.  There is no better way to start the day.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.