Rest Assured:Prayer and Providence

 January 18 2026

Genesis 1:3-24, Matthew 6:25-30

         It goes without saying that when the NFL gets closer to the playoff season it becomes more and more like a three ring circus. Nowhere is this truth so obvious than the last game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. It was all over social media that before the game, a Catholic priest blessed the Steelers end zone by sprinkling holy water over it. Many now believe that this is the reason that this the Ravens missed the field goal in the last few seconds of the game sealing the win for Pittsburgh. That in turn most likely cost the coach, John Harbaugh, his job as well. Yet, can we really say that this loss can be attributed to the actions of a priest showering the end zone with holy water? To be honest, I would rather the priest had not done what he did not because I wanted the Ravens to win, but rather I don’t like the church to be seen dabbling in what seems to be superstition. Superstition is this belief that with the right words, or the correct actions, we can perhaps change the future such as altering the course of a game so that it ends in our favor. You see, what most people, and quite a lot of Christians apparently, do not realize, is that right from the beginning of creation, God ruled out the possibility of their being any hint of their being any means to change a person’s future than simply trusting that future to God.

         When we read the account of God creating the world, as we are doing in this series of messages, we should come away with being in awe of the power of God to take an unknown future and bring forth a beautiful present. We are looking at our beginnings found in the book of Genesis because on the seventh day we hear of God resting, as he surveys all that he has brought forth, a creation he exclaims is, ‘Very good!”. You see, as God rests and enjoys this beautiful place we call home, so too he calls us to join him in resting and enjoying life. This is the very rest that Jesus desires to give to all of us as we hear in the eleventh chapter of Matthew, where he says, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus invites us to take his yoke and place it upon ourselves so that we might go where he goes, back to where we originally rested with God. 

         When we listen to the story of our creation we begin to realize that the story is more than a mere telling of why our world is here for as we go through this account we are given the very means by which we might obtain the rest promised to us. Right there, in the very first words God speaks we discover that God uses unformed nothingness and empty space as his canvas on which to paint his artwork. As his power summons forth creation we find that this power also summons forth faith within us. And then we also hear of how God hovers over us, protecting his creation from the chaos, and we realize that he has never stopped protecting us from harm, for this is how he shows his love for us. Suddenly, a word is spoken, a shout is hurled into the void and suddenly there is light. Here I am indebted to the author, Rachel Booth Smith, who wrote the book, “Rest Assured”, which is the inspiration for these messages. She points out that God uses, common, ordinary, everyday words when he calls forth creation. The reason for this, she claims, is that God intentionally does not use special words or incantations that only a chosen few might learn and possibly use, as is common among those who worship false gods. No, God simply says the word, “Light”, and there is light. You see, there is no power in the words themselves, as superstitious people hope they might be able to learn in order to give them an edge. No, there is only one source of real power in the world and that source is God. Oh, people may put some stock in their unwashed football jersey being the very reason why their team had a winning season, just like some might believe that Pittsburgh Steelers made it to the playoffs because of the workings of a Catholic priest, but the story of creation paints a different picture. Only as God speaks do we become aware of who has the real power.

         Now the thought that God alone having all the power in the universe may initially be a cause for panic by us, for we might have doubts as to how God will use his power. People often joke that when others say or do something wrong that they had better watch out or they just might get zapped by lightning because we got on the wrong side of God. When I hear these kinds of thoughts I think that it is too bad that people do not know this creation story. All one needs to do is listen again to God speak, for as he brings forth the different elements of this world, God declares that it is indeed, “Good”. This is telling us that God, so unlike us, is a God of integrity. You see, God is good, and therefore, what God speaks is also only always, good. So when we say that God is good, we are not just saying that God can do good, but rather we are saying that all God can do is good because he is a good God. This is important for us to understand because when we later come to know God as love we are saying that our God loves us for this is all that our God can do. So as we begin our story, we do so knowing that creation is good because it has been brought forth from a good God who is only able to bring forth a creation which is good.

         What we also learn about our good God is that his words are used to not only to create, but his words bring forth order. God speaks and Heaven is separated from Earth. God speaks and the waters subsides  and dry earth rises up. God also speaks forth the names for all that he brought forth, for a name speaks to the purpose for whatever it is that God has created. Earth is called earth because it is dry land. The Seas are the waters God gathered together. So as we read this account, we begin to see a picture of the good order of God’s creation, each piece fashioned and crafted to fulfill the role given to them by its name. It is good for us to read of this moment of perfection found here at he beginning because it tells us that we are on the right track when we sense that our world is terribly, out of order. This story of creation is supposed to create in us a tension between this glorious ideal we read of and the world we currently find ourselves in. Yet, because we also know that all power is held by God, then we also know that the answer to setting things right can never happen through some magic spell or through a sprinkling of holy water. This is what Jesus speaks about in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where he tells us, “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the people of the nations do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not pray like this. Your Father knows what you need even before you ask him.’ You see, what Jesus is saying to us is that we do not have to need any special words in order for us to be on the good side of God for we know from his creation that all God has is a good side. This goodness is witnessed in God’s creation because God has created all that we could possibly need. This is so evident right here at the beginning, even before humanity was ever spoken into life.

         So, we are to have the assurance that this is a world where God thought of everything that we might need. God has created a home for us that is missing nothing, it is lovely and beautiful, generous and predictable.When we find in this first ten verses of this first chapter of Genesis is that God first, has made homes for the various inhabitants to dwell in. So, where God calls into existence the light named Day and the darkness he called Night, we then find that in the fourteenth through the nineteenth verses that this is where the sun, moon and the stars make their home. Then when God creates the Earth and the Seas we find in the twentieth verse, that this is the home where swarms of living creatures will cover the earth, where birds will spread through the skies and where fish will swim in the waters. You see, this order is to be witnessed by us so that we understand that just like them, we too belong here. Listen to Jesus again, from the sixth chapter of Matthew, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of greater value than the birds?….Consider the flowers of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin yet I tell you, not Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. So if God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not clothe you…?” You see, Jesus is here taking us back to the beginning, to where the care and order of God is so evident. The goodness of God is seen in his knowing the needs of every created being and then supplying exactly what is necessary for them to have life. 

         So what the story of creation speaks to us about is that we are to know that our God is a God who not only speaks life into being but he is also a God who knows all of these living creations and what they need today for life. You see, the story tells us that God did not simply call into being living creatures without knowing what they would need before hand. The key evidence of God’s overflowing abundance found in his creation is found when his creations begin to  bring forth of fruit. In the twelfth verse of this first chapter we read, “The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to their kind.”  We also see God surveying the living creatures filling both Earth and Sky, and not only calling them, “Good”, but we hear God speak a new word, a word called blessing. Verse twenty-two tells us that God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the birds multiply upon the earth.’ You see, these environments God spoke into being not only supplied all the need for those creatures God called into being but God created so much abundance that the beings God called into life were themselves, able to bring forth even more life. So this creation has been made so that regardless of the infinite number of beings being brought to life, God’s goodness is able to provide for all of them.

         So, the creation that we live in does indeed have an order and a structure that is good for the God who has brought it forth is good. We have a God who speaks and where nothing once was there is suddenly something in its place. This God speaks again, and his words take and organize what he has created by separating and dividing each element. God speaks again and  all that he had made now has a name so that all that God created might be known according to the purpose God has for it. Yet, God is not done speaking for he speaks once more, and his blessing is placed upon the life forms he created, causing the life found in his created world to have more life spring forth from them. So at last, we find that God’s creation overflows with life. And God surveys all that he has made, and he declares that it is good. 

         So, this is the way God has ordered our world, a world in which there is a home for us, a place where we might be at rest. When we consider what God has called forth into being, we can begin to understand that God has designed our world to have life and to have life, abundantly. The order of God is seen to be that he creates a world where life is brought forth with the final hope being that this life would bear fruit; life springing forth from life. So what we find in our creation story is that the world we live in with all of its our anxiety and worry, does not have to be like this. You see, the reason why we can trust God for all of our needs is found in the end goal God has for all of life which is that there will be fruit. I mean, think about it; If God has created life to bear fruit, and if God has created the right environment for this to happen, then it just makes sense that God, through his creation is going to be able to supply not just what we might need but God will also supply whatever fruit our life might bring forth. No mater the infinite amount of life that may result, God promises that all will live, all will be blest, for all is good.

         So when we live in this world which seems to be out of order, we need to recall just what it means for our world to at last be in good, working, order.We live every day in this tension between knowing that the world is broken and knowing that God desires a world that is at last restored and ordered once more. Paul puts our dilemma like this in the eighth chapter of Romans, “The whole creation has been groaning  together in childbirth until now.” As Paul further tells us, creation is waiting in hope to be set free from its bondage of corruption, this brokenness that seems so evident. This is the stark reality we are aware of when we utter our prayers to God, for as Paul concludes, that just as the whole creation is groaning we too are to groan in prayer. Just as all of creation is longing to be free from the brokenness and have the original goodness at last be the norm, we too long for the original good order we see portrayed in our creation story to be the world we live in.

         As we have seen, the original order that we witness in the beginning, has life springing forth at God’s command, and this life, in turn, bears fruit, bringing forth life just as our good God first brought life into being. Now while we may not have a magic spell, or some superstitious ritual we can utter in order to bring this broken world back to its original glory, what we can do is to consider the brokenness of our world, our life and those we share life with. As we come to pray, we must keep in mind the order we see in the beginning, and then consider that as all life has as its ultimate goal to bring forth fruit, just what fruit am I bringing forth? Is the fruit of my life, good, as all fruit was, there in the beginning?I guess it should come as no surprise that at the end of his teaching on prayer, Jesus speaks to us about bearing fruit. In the fifteenth through the twentieth verses of the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus , tells us, “Every healthy, well-ordered tree, bears good fruit, but if the tree is diseased, it will bear rotten fruit.” We can figure out from the good we find in the creation story, that good fruit is fruit that has life so that by this fruit more life might be seen. So Jesus is telling us that we should have a life which is a life-giving life, the kind of life where more life is seen to flow out of this life God has give to us. When we understand that this is what it means to bear fruit then it is not much of a leap, to understand that being fruitful for us is very much the same as being merciful, for both entail us having a life that longs to bring forth more life. As a good God first brought forth a world full of the fruit called life, so too in order to be ordered in this good way, we must be willing to bear the good fruit of life. When we do this, I believe that we will once again begin to sense the hope to which God first created this world for we will have a life that has been not only created by God but we also have a life organized by God, and a life named by God as being, good, and very good!Yet, the speaking of the blessing of God over our life only happens as we are willing go forth to bear good fruit. You see, only as we bear good fruit, will we know we have a life that is ordered by God. Only by living out this order will we at last be able to trust the God who has called this order into being and at last, we will find rest in this world! To God be the glory. Amen!