Devotions: Good Beginnings

 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.

Jeremiah 1:5a

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This verse talks about the calling of the prophet Jeremiah, but the idea applies to everyone. God knew each of us before we were born. He knew what we would look like and what we would do, what would become of us and what would happen to us. He planned our physical form and our personality. The Bible also says that God made everything beautiful in its time. You may think that you are not beautiful, that maybe God doesn’t care about your appearance. Believing that you are ugly is calling God a liar and a bad craftsman, which is a dangerous and untrue thing to say. God says you are beautiful because you are His child. You are precious to Him. He made you with His hands. Dwell on that for a minute.

 

He also knows all of your life’s events. It doesn’t mean that He planned for bad things to happen, but He did know that they would. We live in a fallen world where people sin. There is suffering because of sin (the direct consequences of something someone did), but also because we are born in sin. Original sin is the idea that we are imperfect people because the first people sinned, and that “curse” has fallen to every human in history, and also to nature. It is a part of how the world functions. But don’t think that because God allows it that He doesn’t care. He does care. That is why He sent His only Son as a sacrifice in your place so that you could be with Him in the future. One day you can leave this broken world and broken body behind to spend eternity with Christ in perfection. The suffering here will only last for a little while, but you have forever to look forward to. So put your hope and trust in the One who made you, Who cares for you more than any other, Who made the ultimate sacrifice for you to be with Him for eternity. Turn to Him for the strength to get through this life until you can be with Him. Trust the One who knows what will happen in your future, the only One that can make it work out for good.