Before It All

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 207, Before It All.

"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old." Proverbs 8:22.

This verse comes from a strange and beautiful stretch of Proverbs, an entire chapter where Wisdom speaks as though she were a person. She cries out in the public squares, at the crossroads, at the city gates. She doesn't whisper in hiding — she calls out in public, offering herself to anyone willing to stop and listen. And here, in the middle of that speech, she tells her own origin story.

"At the beginning of his work." Notice: this reaches back before Genesis 1, before the first "let there be light." Wisdom wasn't created afterward, as a useful accessory bolted onto an already-finished world. She was there before any of God's work began. That changes how we see everything that exists: if wisdom was present from the very start, nothing in creation is an accident. Every law of physics, every season of the year, every structure of the human body carries wise intention — not chaos, not luck.

And that should give you a different kind of confidence. If the world was made with wisdom from the first instant, then your life isn't meaningless clutter either. There is an intelligence behind everything, even when you can't see the pattern.

Now, Christians across the centuries have read this passage and seen in it an echo — a shadow cast forward toward Christ. Because John opens his gospel almost repeating this idea: "in the beginning was the Word." The wisdom that was with God before anything, that took part in creation, took on a face in Jesus. He is the wisdom of God made flesh, walking among us.

But the most beautiful part of all this is the invitation. That same Wisdom who witnessed the creation of the universe is not locked away somewhere unreachable. She cries out today, in the ordinary streets of your life — at work, in your home, in the small decisions of an average Tuesday. She is offered, not hidden.

So I want to ask you: have you been seeking that wisdom, or have you just been improvising your way through things? So often we act first and ask for help afterward, when we could simply stop and ask for clarity beforehand.

Today, before you make your first important decision, I want you to pause for a moment. Don't ask for generic advice, the kind that just says "Lord, help me today." Ask for wisdom specific to that one concrete choice in front of you. The same Wisdom that existed before creation is willing to walk with you through that small decision today.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.