August 22nd, 20

A New Heart - A New Hope

Today’s readings are Jeremiah 31- 32 and I John 4.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

Jeremiah is given a prophecy from the Lord, of a coming day when God is going to do something new.  He is going to write a new covenant between himself and his people.  That old covenant  that Israel was forever failing to live by, would finally be successfully lived out, but not by kings, or priests or prophets.  It would be lived out by his son, the One Prophet, Priest and King that would fulfil every line of that old covenant.  And that perfect life that he lived would qualify him for the death that he would die, as the spotless lamb of God – a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.  

God’s one and only son came to us because of the great love for the world.  And he lived a life of love among us in perfect obedience to his father, never wavering in his love.  He obeyed all the way to the cross, reconciling us to himself by his death.  Then he made us alive, saving us by his life, and giving us new hearts, so we might live new lives.  Jeremiah 31:31-33 says

The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife, says the Lord.

But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

It’s a new covenant and we have been given new hearts. Because he loves us so much, he has made a way for you and I, for the broken, exhausted and rebellious exiles of God, to come and be with God once again.

In Jeremiah’s prophecy he sees people from all over the world coming back to God, meeting him in Jerusalem.  And now these people are given a new contract, and they are given new hearts too.  And this new covenant is far far better than the old one.  This new covenant is written on the hearts of those He loves, lived and died for. I John 4:16 says,

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

God lives in you. As you live in God and trust him, he will cause your love to grow more perfect.  You can begin to live a life free of fear, condemnation and haunting shame and guilt because you have received a new covenant and a new heart. Begin fresh, each day, with hope in this truth. Wake up to the love that has made all this available to you:  a new covenant, a new heart and a new hope.

You are loved!