What Could Be

From the beginning of time, God took darkness and turned it into light.

Likewise, He wants to take our darkness and turn it into light so that we may be for the praise of His glory.

We should not wallow in sin, shame or regret. Instead, we should choose to believe what God says about us and align ourselves with His purpose.

Genesis 1:1-4

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

God Hovers Over Our Darkness

When our hearts are submerged in deep darkness, God does not turn away in disappointment or repulsion.

He comes close and whispers who He created us to be. He takes our broken pieces and forms them into an intricate, beautiful mosaic that displays His glory.

I love the imagery that surrounds the word hovering.

The Hebrew word is rachaph, which can be defined as to grow soft, relax, flutter, cover, a cherishing motion.

Just as He hovered over the darkness of the earth, the Spirit hovers over our fearful and anxious hearts. He quiets us with His tender love and unrelenting affection. He makes our broken places whole; our shadowed spaces glow and our restless hearts know that He is with us.

God Speaks What Could Be

After hovering over the darkness of the earth, the Spirit then began to speak a new beginning.

He imagined what could be and He set a new reality into motion.

He created a symphony from the silence and did not allow what was to hinder the hope of what could be.

He does not call us by our sin or weakness. He calls us by name.

He shows us that we belong to Him and that we have been set free from the chains of sin that formally bound us.

Let us walk in the abundant freedom that Christ died for us to receive.

God Separates Light from Darkness

After speaking a new beginning of light and life where there was formally shadow, the Spirit separated the light from the darkness.

In the same way, we are called to partner with God to separate our light from darkness, to be cleansed and cleanse ourselves from sin.

If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. We cannot let sin reign in us and we must progress into a further manifestation of the righteousness and holiness that the blood of Jesus has bought for us.

We are being sanctified by the Spirit and conformed into the image of Christ. Our job is to comply with God’s will and submit to His authority.

We cannot let ourselves become immune to the toxic ways of the world and therefore create enmity between us and God.

Let us pursue righteousness, holiness, purity, truth and love as we mature in Christ.

This article was inspired by the book Adamant: Finding Truth in a Universe of Opinions by Lisa Bevere. Here is a quote from her book that sums everything up beautifully:

Even now our Creator longs to draw near and come face-to-face with any place veiled in darkness or misty confusion and shed His light. His Spirit hovers over the formless, voided places in our lives. He is not ignorant of our pain or repulsed by our condition. He sees us wrestling with confusion. He does not pull away when He sees us struggling. His Spirit draws near, waiting, lingering, oh so gently, like a mother beside a frightful or fitful child, like an eagle fluttering over a nest of baby birds as they hatch, watching expectantly as they escape the confines of their thin shells. Later, the eagle will hover again as they learn to fly. This is the adamantly intimate, steadfast nature of our Creator, who as at once around us and within us. Intimacy leaves no room for shadowed spaces, so do not hide. Your Father sees and loves the real you. Trust that the one who formed you will also breathe His life into you.

It is so easy to drown in our mistakes, failures, sin, circumstances, etc.

But God does not look at us for who we have been, but for who we could be in the future.

In the same way, let us look at others for who they could be rather than who they are or have been.

Let us believe for their salvation and pray the word of God over their lives instead of obsessing over how sinful they are.

We are called to believe the identity that we have received in Christ for ourselves as well as others.

We must look at what could be by God’s grace instead of what we see with our natural understanding.