Genesis 1:1-2

Devotional
“The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Before there was a church, there was the Spirit. Before Pentecost, there was the Spirit. Before Moses, David, Abraham, or Israel, there was the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit didn’t suddenly appear in Acts 2. He didn’t begin existing at Pentecost. He was present in creation itself. Genesis gives us a picture of a world that was formless, empty, and dark. And then we are told that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. That matters. Because throughout Scripture, the presence of God’s Spirit is connected with God’s work of bringing life, order, beauty, and transformation. God speaks into darkness—and light appears. God speaks into emptiness—and creation begins to fill. God speaks into chaos—and order begins to emerge. The Spirit is there. Sometimes our lives can feel a lot like Genesis 1:2. Formless. Empty. Dark. We may look at our circumstances and wonder, “How could God possibly bring something beautiful out of this?” But Genesis reminds us that darkness isn’t a barrier to God. Chaos isn’t a barrier to God. Emptiness isn’t a barrier to God. The Spirit of God is able to move into places that seem lifeless and begin bringing life. Maybe that’s what you need to remember today. God is not intimidated by the places in your life that still need to be transformed. The same Spirit who was present when God brought creation out of chaos is the Spirit who works in you. You don’t have to manufacture transformation. You don’t have to become your own source of life. You need to learn to surrender to the God who gives life.

Read the Context
Genesis 1 NIV
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Footnotes

1. Genesis 1:26 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see Syriac); Masoretic Text the earth

 
Make it Personal

• Where does your life currently feel “formless, empty, or dark”?
• What would it look like to invite the Holy Spirit into that area?
• Are you trying to produce something God wants to produce through His Spirit?

 
Talk to God
Holy Spirit, help me recognize that You have been God’s presence and power from the beginning. Where there is darkness in me, bring light. Where there is emptiness, bring life. Where there is chaos, bring Your order. Teach me to trust Your work in me. Amen.