I need to start this devotional with an apology. I have a beef. I apologize that I am about to hurt some feelings. The beef is about the way people are attributing things that happen in their lives to the whim and fortunes of “the Universe.” I have seen this all over social media. I get it. It’s trendy. It’s cool. It’s….wrong.

In short, the “Universe” has no power of its own. It can’t control your fate, bring you good luck, find the right mate for you, or open doors to success. The universe is just part of God’s creation. HE is the one to whom we should attribute our lives and our blessings. God’s creation can not do this. Only God can.

I am in good company when it comes to this. When he traveled to Athens to share the good news of Jesus Christ, Paul saw a lot of things that weren’t right.

Acts 17 (The Message)

^22-23 So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.

The Greeks had created a god-structure which was represented in stone, and worshipped these gods as powerful deities. Paul set them straight.

^24-29 “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him.

Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?

Christians, here comes the warning. God will overlook these slights as long as we don’t know any better.

We know better.

^30-31 “God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”

A radical life-change means we don’t follow trends, use popular language the way the secular world uses it, or stray from the things we have been taught. Give God the credit he deserves. He is the only one who is capable of offering you a future with hope. Even the universe knows this.