Daily Devotional | Back to the Basics

Today marks the beginning of a new year. It is an appropriate time to reflect on the things that are the most important to us. It is especially fitting to begin this year with a reminder of some of the most important biblical truths. Today’s reading in Genesis 1 presents us with two of the most fundamental truths about our relationship with God.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). This truth is like the keystone of an arch. If it is removed, the whole edifice will crumble. The basic relationship between God and everything else in existence is this: God is the Creator and everything else is created. This view is quite different from creation stories told in the ancient world. In those texts, the gods produced the world out of conflict and strife with one another. There is no conflict in Genesis 1. God spoke and things came into existence. God’s existence did not depend upon anything. He alone is the self-existent One. The universe we live in is not the result of random impersonal processes and forces, but the carefully crafted product of a personal God. This means there is a purpose and meaning in our existence.

Second, we learn that our very existence is the gracious gift of God. We cannot bargain or strike a deal with God because everything we have comes from Him. We are valuable not because of what we produce or not because of what we can give to God. The most we can do is simply rearrange and reorganize what God already created. Our basic posture toward God should be one of gratitude and wonder: “How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps. 104:24).