God is Our Initiator

                  God is Our Initiator

I have the privilege of doing research for pastors.  I LOVE it!   I get to do what I call … play.   I dig around in the original language, cross reference and put the puzzle pieces together.  This last week, I worked on God is Creator. This pastor gives me just the title and I run with it.  This was not only fun, but impacting. 

I began at the very beginning.  Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created …’   Created is bara (baw-raw) in the Hebrew.  Lovely word, it means to create, select, and choose.  It expresses creation out of NOTHING.  Genesis is an awesome display of creating out of nothing.  It is also to engrave, carve.  Paints a wonderful picture doesn’t it?

Bara is used ONLY in context to God as the One who creates.  Many other words are used for create, such as– to make, to form, establish.   All are qualities of God, yet ‘bara’ emphasizes the ‘initiation’ of an object.  God initiated the world, He initiated man/woman.  He initiated covenant with man.  He initiated a love relationship, “We love, because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19)

There are other places God initiates.  David says in Psalm 51:10 ‘Create [bara] in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me’.  David goes to the One who could do such a thing.  He isn’t asking God to take and use what is already there in his heart, but to create something completely new, use new materials, God materials.  THAT is our God!  As bara is the initiation of something, may I suggest, David cried out ‘start something here, right here in my heart God!’

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NLT)
God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Have we found ourselves frustrated, because we may do or even ‘be’ what we don’t want?   We attempt over and over to change, but to no avail. What do we want – NEED God to start, create, even carve in us?  Place there for the very first time.  God is the God of start, the God of firsts.  God is our Initiator!

May we implore of God as David did, ‘Create in me ________ O God’ (you fill in the blank) Be honest!  Watch as God does His handiwork in YOU!

Have a God-loving, allowing God to create, week!

In Him, DeDe (Ps. 92:4 You thrill me, LORD …)