"For God, who said, 'Let there be light in the darkness,' has made this light shine in our hearts..."
I would like to start today's thought with a story from my life. When my girlfriend and I broke up a couple years ago, it shook me up pretty bad. We had been dating for many years, and planned to get married. ALL of my life plans involved her. So our breaking up devastated my whole life.
I was on the verge of sinking into a deep depression. But, the night that it happened, I was lying on the couch trying to get some sleep and failing, when I sensed God speaking to me. He said, "Be happy."
And, contrary to all of my circumstances, totally opposed to the logic of the situation or my predicament, I was suddenly happy. He literally SPOKE happiness into my heart.
In 2 Corinthians today, we read that God, who said "Let there be light in the darkness" has made this light shine in our hearts. This is the same kind of thing that happened when He spoke happiness into me. He created something... entirely out of nothing.
That's what ex nihilo means, by the way. It means "from nothing". This is the way God created the universe. Whether you believe in a big bang and evolution (and that's ok) or whether you believe that God literally created everything in 6 literal days (and that's ok too) or somewhere in between, at some point God created it all from nothing.
And that's what He does in our lives, too. He creates patience from nothing. And peace. And kindness. Joy, faith, hope, and most of all, love.
You might say "Well, He doesn't make them from NOTHING, He makes them from Himself."
And you're right, no argument about that. But He creates something that wasn't there before. It's not like He expects you to be a LITTLE patient so that He can make you MORE patient. It might seem like He expects you to have a LITTLE faith (like a mustard seed?) so that He can grow it into something huge (like a mountain?). But He doesn't even expect us to make those things ourselves.
All we have to do is ask. He responds to our asking by speaking these things into our lives.
What are you lacking? What can He speak into your life? Ask, and you will receive.
Thank You, God, for speaking your goodness into our lives.
2 comments:
Your blog is slowly becoming my daily devotional reading. Thanks' .. and praise be to God.
I agree with Laura, now back to Job....Elihu really calls out Job and says many things that are right on target but he like the other friends have given advise based on their knowledge and experiences or sins. Elihu declares himself as very knowledgeable....and much of what he says is fairly true except he too doesn't have the facts either. Thus he is demonstrating that he too should have been there for Job but not condemning or point out what he believes. Was Job sinning now due to his "friends" advise? Yes, he was trying to prove something before mankind and not keeping his eyes heaven ward. Job knew in his heart of heart that he himself did not cause what happened by sinning, but his sin now was pride and proving his friends and God wrong. Arrogant attitude does not look good on anyone especially Gods righteous man Job. Thus Job turned to anger at his "friends" and God. And so the story grows.....
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