Gen. 1:1 In the beginning, God
I’m the kind of person who hates asking for help to the point where someone could be beating me with my own arm (after ripping it from my body) and my response to peoples concern will be “I’m fine.”
In a way taking care of my own problems instead of relying on other people is a good thing. Yet this also reveals my hearts desire for independence or control over every situation in life, which is why God has to remind me of my weakness.
And why I woke up this morning discouraged
I’m not really sure why, but there will be certain days when I struggle with feelings of frustration or sadness because things just aren’t going the way I planned. Today those frustrations were magnified by the fact that I hurt from head to toe (thats what I get for running half-marathons).
The thing about these days is there’s nothing I can do to make myself happy except indulging in junk food and Netflix (after which I feel, lazy, fat, AND depressed). So the only choice is to ask God or strength, and hope tomorrow things are better.
I’m so happy God’s not that way
The first four words of Scripture teach us two very important things about God;
First of all He existed in the beginning.
- Before anything was created (Genesis 1:1)
- Before Adam and Eve were made (Genesis 1:27)
- Before they chose to disobey God (Genesis 3:6)
- Before sin entered the world (Genesis 3:14–19)
- Before all of this God existed
But wait it gets better….
The world God here is a Hebrew word elohim and along with God means “any person characterized by greatness or power: mighty one, great one, judge.” Most scholars believe it is a name for God that means mighty one.
So in the first four words of Scripture we see God as an “Eternal Mighty One.”
Books have been written on exactly what that means, but sitting on a couch writing this post with sore legs and a lack of motivation here’s what it means to me.
God will never have a bad day
He will never be weak
He will never lash out in hatred because things are going bad [1]
He will never act in selfishness or pride
He will never turn to donuts or Netflix as a source of strength
Because He doesn’t have to
The thing is nobody can call me “eternal strong one”, instead “sort of strong a couple days a week one” fits me much better 🙂
So bad days are actually a tool used by the Lord to focus my eyes on Him, the Eternal Strong One. The problem is I try to take the feelings of sadness away, or act as if everything’s fine when it really isn’t.
Matt Papa in his book “Look and Live” shares some interesting thoughts comedian Louis C.K. brought up in a recent interview about our refusal to feel sad.
It’s down there. And sometimes when things clear away … you’re not watching anything … you’re in your car, and you start going, “Oh no, here it comes … I’m alone.” It starts to visit on you. Just this sadness.
Life is tremendously sad, just by being in it. That’s why we text and drive. I look around, pretty much 100 percent of the people driving are texting. And everybody’s murdering each other with their cars. But people are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don’t want to be alone for a second …
Papa, Matt (2014–10–28). Look and Live: Behold the Soul-Thrilling, Sin-Destroying Glory of Christ (p. 118). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
That sadness…that discouragement…that feeling of aloneness is God’s way of reminding us He’s the Eternal Strong One (and we aren’t). But I beat those emotions down, and act as if I’m the strong one!
May God give me more bad days so that I can realize my weakness, and run to His eternally strong arms.
- God does judge sin, but all of life has consequences for the wrong actions ↩
Johnhwilburn.org 