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What Does it Mean for You?

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Genesis 1:26
What Does it Mean for You? Book Cover

What does this mean for us?

In Leviticus, Moses wrote, “. . . but you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). In Deuteronomy, he wrote, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:5). Thousands of years later, Jesus referenced these two commandments, declaring, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40).

When we apply the Word of God found in the books of the Law to our lives, our goal isn’t to make a to-do list of things that do and don’t apply to us. Although our culture is vastly different from that of the original audience, our purpose for learning God’s Word is the same. We study the Scriptures so that we might love God with all of our heart and love those around us.

In the first chapter of Genesis, God created man and woman in his image. As his image bearers, he appointed them caretakers of God’s created beings: birds of the air, fish of the sea, and beasts of the fields. This stewardship also included filling the earth with more image-bearers through procreation.

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Daily Question

What does Genesis 1 teach you about God? About his creation? How does it motivate you to love him? To love those in your life?

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Comments (13)

God is loving. More than anyone and more than i can understand. We need to care for His creation. Its what He says. To me includes not buying conventional meat and fish.
To love more of Him it. Guides me to learn more about Him. And to listen more and judge less others

I never really put two and two together that WE, mankind, are Image Bearers of God! I know we were made in His image, but to think of us as image bearers put’s a different spin on it. As we are all called to love one another, we are quickly reminded that there is another that rules over the worldly realms and his objective is exactly opposite. Therefore, we must work every single day to love those we do not want to love, and to show Gods image through that love to as many people as we possibly can!!

God is love and because of His love I love Him, and because of His love in my heart I can love others. and bout His creation, I am here to represent God and because I am bout by precious blood I do what He wants and that is honor for me to obey Him and to take care of His creation.

God must love me a lot because he made me to be like Him. He wants me to have a relationship with Him. God’s story contains Him making a way for me to be close to Him despite my sin. This makes me love Him because He cares for me. It makes me want to share His love for everyone with others so they too can be blessed by Him.

Genesis 1 teaches us that God is the Creator of all things and the provider of all that we need. Nothing was left out of His perfect creation. It motivates me to love Him for who He is not just what He does and reminds me that He loved us first. As we are image bearers of God and part of His perfect creation for which what is needed in the earth at any given time has been created, we must see each other as that and love one another as reflections on the living God.

Shameika I love how you put this " we must love HIM for who HE is not just for what HE’S done for us! We are reminded of his Love for us as soon as we look at all HE’S created the birds animals mountains tress and oceans. When I read WE MUST SEE EACH OTHER AS REFLECTIONS of the LIVING GOD. I get so sad ? as I see what ugliness there is around me the fact that mankind has abandoned GOD and HIS LOVE ❤️

Reading God’s Word helps me get to know GOD what HE stands for how HE wants me to treat other people. But I have to dig deeply into HIS WORD not just skim through it. The Holy Spirit helps us with this. If we ask HIM.

It teaches me that God wanted to share the maintenance of his beautiful creation with humans to be stewards and that he gave us the Earth and creation as a gift to share with him. It motivates me to love God more because it shows me that God loved me so much to make me in an image of him and that he gave the Earth as a gift to humans to enjoy. It makes me see everything I take for granted and appreciate God. It makes me think of God as a joyful creator.

God loves us so much and wants a close relationship with us. He created a beautiful place for us to inhabit. God was very detailed, provided food -fruit trees, plants, animals, everything to meet our needs. He also wanted us to enjoy creation and be in awe of his creation.
I remember when my husband, nephews & I would be camping in the mountains, at night when the sky was so dark but the stars so bright and beautiful, just perfect. We would just stare and talk about how magnificent God was to create this wonder for us. I just couldn’t imagine how someone could see this and not believe in God, this sight, wonder couldn’t just happen.
God made us caretakers of his creation. We are responsible to take care of the vegetation, animals, rivers, streams all he provided for us.
God created all this with me in mind, How can I not love a God that knows me and still loves me. He wanted me to be His child. I want everyone to know this deep love. We all fall short of loving others as God does but everyone deserves to be accepted and feel loved.

Because God created us in his image, we are reflections of his glory. We can reflect his characteristics such as love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, and faithfulness. Knowing this motivates me to love him more because of how much he loves me! It’s unconditional and ever flowing and I am so extremely grateful for that. His love isn’t earned – we are people of infinite worth. Just reminding myself that I am always worthy of God’s love really helps motivate me to love him more as well as other people in my life. We have to remember that we are *all* God’s children and we *all* are worthy of his love. Knowing this can help us forgive more easily and love those around us better.

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