“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
– Genesis 1:3
Is Genesis 1:3 not the most amazing verse? Like, it’s so familiar to us. If you’ve read through the Genesis one account of creation, it’s almost over-familiar to hear this refrain over and over and over again. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” That’s verse three. Then verse six: “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse, separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse, and it was so.” Verse nine: “God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place. Let the dry land appear,’ and it was so.”
God is so powerful that when he spoke, light came into being.
Verse 11: “God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation,’ and it was so.” Verse 14: “God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.'” So this is talking about stars, sun and moon. “And it was so.” Verse 20: “God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures.’ And it was so.” Then you get down to verse 26: “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image after our likeness.’ So God created man and the woman in his own image. Male and female, he created them.” How did all of these things come into being? By the word of God. All he did was speak.
Go back to verse three. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Do you realize the power that is in the spoken word of God? I don’t think we do because if we did, we would open our Bibles every day in complete awe. Think about it. Right? Like when we open up the Bible, we are opening up the word of God. The God who, when he speaks a world is formed.
When he speaks, light comes where there was only darkness before. When he speaks, creatures start crawling. People start breathing when he speaks. This is the power of God’s word. And you and I have the privilege, the joy, the awesome honor of hearing, reading, studying, meditating on the word of God day and night. And why would we not want to meditate on his word when we realize how powerful it is, how awesome it is?
Genesis 1:3 Reminds Us Of The Power Of God’s Word
And then, obviously, this is just the very beginning of the Bible. What we will see throughout God’s word is the power of his word to not just bring a world into being, bring people into being, but to bring supernatural life to sinners.
“Faith comes by hearing,” Romans 10:17 says, “and hearing by the word of God.” When you and I hear the word of God, God, by the power of his spirit, opens up our hearts to believe in Jesus, to trust in him for salvation from our sins, to experience eternal life. All of that happens through the spoken word of God.
So God, help us, we pray, especially here at the start of this year. God, help us to realize how awesome your word is and to open up our Bibles and meditate on your word day and night, every day, every night, to soak in the power of your word. We praise you for the power of your word to bring us life. God, we believe that your word leads to eternal life on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis, that in your word you have revealed yourself to us. And our greatest boast is not that we would have riches or might or wisdom, but our greatest boast is that we would know you.
Help Us To Have Strength And Courage
So God, help us to know you more this year through your word. Help us to walk with you in obedience to your word. Help us to have strength and courage on a day-by-day basis, like you promise in Joshua chapter one, as we meditate on your word. And God, we pray that you would cause your word to spread through us this year.
God, we pray that you would bring other people to supernatural life through your word in us. God, we pray for family members, for friends, for co-workers, for neighbors to come to know Jesus and eternal life with you through your word in our lives, God, through your word in our churches. May your word be proclaimed clearly and faithfully in our churches, and may you be glorified in the proclamation of your word. God, we need your word in our lives, our families, our churches. We need your word in our country. The nations need your word.
Genesis 1:3 Prays For The Spread Of His Word Across All Nations
God, we pray for this year to be a year of unprecedented spread of your word among all the nations. Among more and more unreached peoples. God, we pray for your word to be translated into more and more languages. That more and more people might have access to your word.
So God, we praise you for it. We pray that you would help us to hunger for it, meditate on it, feast on it, memorize it, study it, devote ourselves to it, obey it, trust it, lean on your word. And God, we believe your word, bank our lives on it, trusting that your word is life. Your word brings life. Your word brought the world into being. The word that saved us from our sins. Your word will lead us and guide us all year long. So God, help us to stand in awe of it, and meditate on it, and pray according to it continually. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, according to your word. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
