January 5, 2012… Back to the source

Today’s scripture…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NLT)

Devotional thought…
The story is told of a young bride who wanted to cook her new husband a roast brisket for supper. She pulled out the recipe her mom used, for she remembered it being perfect every time. As she was preparing, her husband noticed that the first thing she did was cut 3 inches off each end of the brisket. “Why do you do that, for it seems to be wasting good meat?” The bride knew her mom had always done this, but she really didn’t know why, so she called her mother to ask. Her mother said that she saw her mom do it each time and knew it was important, but also really didn’t know why. When the bride called her grandma to ask why, grandma informed her that her pan was smaller than most and the only reason she cut off the good meat is because it wouldn’t all fit in her pan!

In life, we often find ourselves doing lots of things intently but not really knowing why we do them. Marriage, work, family, church, prayer, tithing, Bible reading… all of these are things we can lose perspective and purpose in the longer we do them? Where can we regain our purpose and perspective for life and living it out? Just like the bride, going back to the source of what we do can help.

Today’s scripture comes from the first verse in the Bible, and it says, “In the beginning God….”. Since the God of the Bible is the source of our lives, finding our purpose and perspective for living needs to start with Him. Discovering our beginnings for life and faith can show us the things we do that are silly and futile, only being done because we learned it from silly generations that passed them down to us.

Make it your prayer to live for and in a way that honors the one who is the Source of all things… The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.