Rev. 4:11 “…for You created all things and by Your will they were created and have their being.”
Observation: This passage was written by John after God invited him to “come up here” (verse 1) to see heaven’s throne room. John reported seeing someone sitting on the throne surrounded by dazzling colors, blazing lamps, and twenty-four other thrones, each seating an elder. The scene was accompanied by lightning flashes, rumblings and peals of thunder. As the elders worshipped, they repeatedly fell before God and laid their crowns before the throne saying, “You are worthy our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things and by Your will they were created and have their being.”
Application: Look closely at what the elders are saying: God is worthy to receive glory, honor and power “because”… Why? Because He created all things. Literally every thing we can see or imagine exists because God was its creator.
This is heaven’s song, the song that will be sung for all eternity before the throne of God. Verse 8 describes four living creatures around the throne who day and night never stop saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.” It is the never-ending testimony of these creatures to which the elders respond by praising God who merits adoration precisely because He is the creator of, literally, every thing.
If it is God’s creation (and therefore His ownership) of everything that stimulates eternal worship of Him, is it any wonder that the God of this age would focus with such severity on opposing that message? For all of recorded history since Genesis 1, men have acknowledged God as creator. Yet as the end of the age draws near, Satan has advanced the deception that I and everything I see are the product of mere chance, of random evolutionary processes, thus undermining the core notion of God that heaven holds pre-eminent. What’s the saying?—“From ooze to you by way of the zoo.”
If I believe that, it naturally follows that the things I in turn create are mine alone. I owe God no particular gratitude for my daily bread; I have earned it myself. The business I have built, the toys in my garage, the lake house—these are appropriate rewards for my hard work and keen perception of how to get ahead.
If He is truly the creator of all, none of this is mine: not treasure, not time, not life itself. How should that truth impact my decisions today?
Prayer: Father, You have indeed created all things. One day soon I will return to You, redeemed by Jesus’ blood. Cause me to live today as though it could happen in the next insta