Nicole asked if I’d review her devotional, “Devotions From Genesis” back in January 2013. I was looking for devotional avenues at the time and agreed, choosing to do it Monday to Friday every week. At 50 chapters in Genesis, I thought at first I’d be done by mid-March, but discovered that Nicole had other plans.
Nicole draws parallels from the characters in Genesis to God’s desire to interact with mankind throughout the Bible and how we might apply that to ourselves today. She divides Genesis into three parts: Discovering God’s character through the fall of man, learning obedience to God and the consequences of disobedience, and the final section, learning about the parallels between Joseph and Christ.
This is a fresh look at the Book of Beginnings. I very much enjoyed all the Scripture she used throughout the study. Not once did she take any Scripture reference out of context, which is a big thing for me. Her use of Scripture even in her closing prayer of each session is sure to help the reader who might not be familiar with the thoughts she expresses to God.
This study is not a workbook. There are no places to answer questions or to write things down. To that end, the devotional reader will want to keep their journal nearby to jot down thoughts, Scriptures, and answers to questions that the text might raise for them. Many find it a healthy practice to keep a prayer journal or a study journal nearby anyway, so going through this particular study will continue that habit.
This study is also not a historical expose’ of the times in which the events occurred. Nicole’s primary focus is on the spiritual applications of the events and people in Genesis moreso than matching up those events to verifiable records. That would require a much more indepth look at the book of Genesis and has been covered by other authors. As a devotional, there isn’t room for this kind of discussion.
So if the reader is interested in how the lessons found in Genesis apply to their lives today, this is the devotional to pick up. Read each chapter in Genesis before you carry on in the text. This gives a great background for the day’s session. If you are not pressed for time, taking time to open your Bible to each of the remaining Scripture references for that day will help to internalize that day’s thoughts as well. Then, if you are like me, you will be tempted to write out your own commentary on what God is teaching you as you travel with Nicole through the pages of Genesis. It was all I could do at times not to begin writing my own commentary of what God was teaching me. But to keep from potentially overshadowing Nicole’s efforts for the purposes of this review, I refrained except for a couple times.
Great read, great devotional, nothing out of context, even the prayers have Scripture in them. . . I give this devotional a five out of five.
