Continuing this series on slowing down, simplifying, and finding creative grace to produce without sweat, I offer you five more insights from the first chapter of Genesis.

Do feel free to post your own insights, thoughts, and responses in the comments. I’d love to hear your thinking around this subject…

1. After His Kind

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11 KJV)

The plan of God is that all He created capable of reproduction produce after it’s kind.

To live a prosperous, peaceful life of gracious contribution, we cannot spend our efforts trying to be something or someone we are not.

If God made you to bear apples, bear the best apples you can produce. Don’t envy the orange tree person because their fruits are more colourful or juicy.

Tiresome pursuit of something unattainable, in this case, being someone God never designed you to be, is a deep-rooted discontent that many waste their lives chasing.

Instead of looking inwardly, spending efforts to discover who they themselves are, what ‘kind’ God created them to be, they look outward at the forest, envious of other trees, herbs, and grasses.

You are one of kind!

No one else can take your place, and if you don’t become unashamedly yourself, no one else can.

2. Seasons

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14 KJV)

Life is seasonal like the rhythms God put in motion when He made the worlds. Knowing what season you are in will help you navigate with grace and humility.

Some seasons are more strenuous than others, but when we yield to the hand of God shaping or sharpening our character through each one, we are well prepared for the next. Fighting against the season’s flow will tire you out. Finding grace and proper pace with God’s purpose in a season, even if strenuous, removes the friction that so often exhausts us through the process.

In every season, right down to moment by moment seasons, days, months, and years, there is something magnificent to discover in God. Being aware of His immediate presence, and His greater plans that span decades or more gives grace to our heart to walk in peaceful pace with Him in big and small.

Don’t be quick to judge His methods. He sees the end from the beginning, and what seems contrary right may well be the very circumstances He uses to form your future successes.

No rush or hurry is required if we trust in God’s provision for the season we are in.

Learn your lessons well, and be ready to let go graciously when one season comes to an end and a new one begins. Each has its own special riches to bestow.

3. Greater and Lesser Lights

“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.” (Genesis 1:16 KJV)

Greater lights. Lesser lights. And the stars also.

“And God set them … to give light upon the earth, … and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:17–18 KJV)

Comparison is not the way to peace!

Greater lights, lesser lights, stars also. Some big, some small, but all with the same glorious commission; to give light to the earth, and divide the light from the dark.

Shine your light unashamedly in the very best ways you know how. Don’t allow your sense of worth to be eclipsed by the sun of someone else’s genius.

God has commissioned you to fulfil His mandate and assignment, and it is good! You will not be judged on the light He commanded another to bring, He will require account only for your own stewardship of the gifts he chose to entrust into your keeping.

Don’t feel lesser. Don’t consider yourself greater. The sun does not shine with self-conscious rays, it simply fulfils its nature. The moon does not reflect with straining jealousy, it rejoices in the sky showing forth an unparalleled beauty.

Be who you are, and settle into your orbit around the purposes of God with wholehearted commitment.

4. Blessed

“And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.” (Genesis 1:22 KJV)

Fruitfulness and multiplication flow from blessing.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and the things that the world is seeking by sweat will be added by grace to your account.

No greater love or beauty exists than the wonderful presence of God in our lives.

Don’t multiply your efforts and then ask for His blessing on your own makings.

Seek His blessing first, the blessing of divine counsel, wisdom from His heart, and compassion for your fellow pilgrims, and from that place of grace and fullness go forth and multiply.

5. In His Image

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26 KJV)

God is not in hurry.

God is not nervous, anxious, fearful, or insecure.

God is creative, playful, holy, and whole in Himself. Fully immersed in His perfect plans for humanity, He pours Himself out in endless abundance for the betterment of His creation.

You are like your Maker.

In His image. After His likeness.

A miracle made to make!

Just as He brought forth wonders from His heart so will you. It’s your nature to produce.

The invisible is made visible through your intervention.

You are a conduit, and through the faith alive in your heart, hopes become substance and are shared with the world.

Such is your DNA. Creative fruitfulness is your default. Greatness and beauty flow from your inner man with effortless intention, because you live from who you are – a child of the great Creator Himself!