Gleanings — 7

Creativity

Creativity is released in atmospheres of openhearted freedom and trust.

Creativity is like walking into the unknown and receiving the unexpected.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

God is creative; His Holy Spirit is creative; trust His creativity to flow through you.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered and moved over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2

God’s Spirit hovers and moves over His creative children.

If your dreams and visions come from God, He has the power to accomplish them.
Believe—and then prepare—by prayer, schooling, practice, work—do what is needful.

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. Hebrews 11:11

Unbelief frustrates, hinders and drains life—believing and acting on your faith releases creative energies, heals, energizes and fulfills.

. . . the testing of your faith produces perseverance James 1:3

but

. . . faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:17

 The closer your character is aligned with God’s, the more your creative efforts will be from Him and reflect His love, His purposes, His beauty, truth and glory.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24

Look to the heart of things; search out the meaning and the motive—in your own work and that of others. Skilled deceptions seem creative as they counterfeit God and His works.

But an expression of unskilled, unselfconscious simple truth and vision, as that of a child, is almost always totally creative.

God help us stand on the edges of Your ways and receive from you. Help us uncover old truths or birth fresh insights to unchanging realities and forms. May we, your children bring life to both old and new—in songs, stories, myths, designs, plans and illustrations— in cooking, planting gardens or designing buildings—give us words and works with beauty to reflect and express the true.

If Jesus is your guide you don’t need to know where You are going— You do need to know Him— He is the way.

The Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. Exodus 35:30-33