Something that God has been impressing on my heart, is that beginnings are important. Beginnings set the tone and direction. How we start something has the potential to affect how we end. If we start wrong, it will affect our actions through til the end. Many of us start our relationship with God with the wrong beginning. So of course, our actions throughout can be wrong. Many of us start our relationship with God understanding that we sinned and that we need God for forgiveness. Although this information is correct, we can tend to think that forgiveness is the goal or finish line. When in fact forgiveness is the starting line.

I have been able to spend time exploring the Old Testament and in doing so God has revealed some truths to me. Not only through personal study but through sermons from the “Train you Brain” series by Pastor Mark Robinson. Let’s start with the beginning, “ Genesis 1: 1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is a challenging concept for many, including some scientists. What I have learned is that this beginning does not contradict science. However, that fact is not as important to me in comparison to what can miss about God by focusing on statistics. God can not and should not be reduced to our terms of understanding. In this short verse, we learn that God is creative. How many creative people do you fully understand? How much more do you think you can fully understand God as a creator? We learn that he is distinct from His Creation. We also learn that He existed before creation. Yet, if we fell to get this correct understanding of the beginning, we can find it difficult to trust God with the details of our life circumstances because we fell to see that he created us just like he created the galaxies. The same God that created the galaxies, created us. Just as He has been faithful to maintain the galaxies and every detail that keeps them rotation, is He not doing. The. Same in your and my life?

Now let’s jump to Genesis. 1:26, Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground.” This verse is packed with a lot of information but I will focus on the fact that before sin entered the world we were created to rule. Many of us fall into the trap of thinking we have no purpose, we need to find our mission, or that we worthless because we sinned. God created us to rule. How we rule is a different matter. We can not rule well without God, but we are meant to rule. Rule what? The territory that God has given you and me. Don’t know what your territory is, What are you responsible for? Yourself, your family, or your employees. Rule your territory with the help of God according to His instructions.

There is so much more that we can discuss our beginnings, but I ask that you go to the beginning and ask God and yourself some questions to raise your awareness about. Your relationship with Him.

What in the beginning do you have a wrong view of?
What understanding do you have about the start of your relationship with God?
Do you see God as an involved loving creator or a far off savior?