January 1-4, 2025

Heart Preparation:
Take a moment to prepare your heart to enter into relationship with you. You are about to read the Words of eternal life. There is a purpose behind the passages you are going to read this week, God has a message for His people. Pray that your mind would be focused and your heart would be opened to His Word. 

Week’s Reading Plan:

• Wednesday, January 1 — Genesis 1-3
• Thursday, January 2 — Genesis 4-7
• Friday, January 3 — Genesis 8-11
• Saturday, January 4 — Job 1-5

What to Expect:
As you read through the passage this week, you are going to be encountering the beginning of everything, the creation of all things from nothing. God simply speaks it into existence, and it comes forth. You will see how God made it all “good”, but quickly sin enters into the scene, and from that moment on, the world continually gets worse and worse until God floods it all, saving only 8 people in all. Even after the flood though, mankind continues to try and serve themselves at the Tower of Babel. You will also be introduced to Job, a wealthy and righteous man who comes under attack from Satan, taking everything but his life.

Things to Look For:
As you read this weeks reading, in the Creation account, take note of the terms God uses to describe His creation. Visualize the description of it all, as it starts in total emptiness, and then it builds and builds until God's masterpiece, mankind (Ephesians 2:10).

After man commits the first sin, take note to the reactions of Adam and Eve, as well as their attempts to cover their own nakedness, and who ultimately covers it. Also pay attention to where Adam is as Eve is being tempted, and for further study, compare Eve's view on the fruit (Genesis 3:6) with John's description of what is of the world (1 John 2:16).

As you read through Genesis, look for the couple of times where men in the Bible listened to the voice of someone other than God, when they were supposed to listen to God.

In Genesis 5, you will see the result of sin, that everyone died.

And then as you read through the flood account, look at the emphasis on God through His working in Noah (God gave favor to Noah, God shut the door to the ark, God remembered Noah).

Lastly, as you read the Tower of Babel, look at the attitude of the people of Babel.

Personal Insight:
As I read this weeks reading, the one thing that popped out to me specifically was the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. When they committed the sin by disobeying God, we see that their eyes were immediately open to their nakedness, and they were ashamed. As a result, they attempted to hide from God and cover up their own nakedness. This reminds me of the many times that my personal sin has caused me to be ashamed, and I think that I can try to hide from God and cover up my shame on my own. But then we see the response of God. He comes walking through the Garden, calling out to them. God knew what had happened, yet He still came to be in fellowship with them. He still came walking through the Garden. And then we see the foreshadow to the cross of Christ, that God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. I cannot work to take away my sin, but God sent the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of Him. God did what I could never do, so that I can live how I could never live. In my shame and misery of sin, God came looking for me, God came to seek out a relationship with me, and with you too! And because of this, we don’t have to hide in shame, but as the writer of Hebrews says, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence! Thank you Jesus!

Prayer:
God, I thank You that you have given me grace through your Son Jesus Christ. That You have desired to be in relationship with me, knowing all of my sin and downfalls, and yet You came seeking me out. May the desire of your heart to be in relationship with me weigh on my heart, so that I seek You out through it all. 

Author

This weeks devotion was presented by Andrew Peterman. Andrew is the lead pastor at Center.