Tag: covenant faithfulness
Sunday rest and reflection-trust and obey!
Dear Friends,
Greetings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus Christ! Another week has flown by and we have another opportunity to enjoy a Sabbath rest. We can join with others of precious faith and worship and pray together. The church is the Bride of Christ and meets together to prepare for His coming and to reach out to those who are yet to know Him. The Sabbath is for man’s benefit and blessing.
As I reflect back on this week’s readings in Jeremiah, I am again encouraged with the simplicity of God’s message to His children. Trust and obedience will bring blessing! It is so simple yet it seems to be so difficult for the people of God to trust Him! We see over and over people who say they want to hear His word and follow His directions turning the other way and doing their own thing. This always leads to disastrous consequences and they are warned again and again that these consequences will come. Who will deliver them from these fatal errors?
A group of people mentioned by Jeremiah and singled out by God for blessing were the Recabites. (Jeremiah 35) These people had sworn in a covenant oath to their father Jonadab that they would not drink wine, plant grapes, sow seed, or build houses but would live in tents. This people had been faithful to their oath for years. Jeremiah tried to entice them to drink wine and they refused. They were commended as being faithful to their oath while the Israelites had broken their covenant vows to God to be faithful over and over. (Jeremiah 35:18-19) These Recabites were rewarded and commended for their faithfulness! They had learned to trust and obey their earthly father while the Isrealites refused to trust and obey their heavenly father! Even in their limited obedience, they still needed God’s grace because they too were sinners.
Thanks be to God for He did for us what we could not do! We have the Holy Spirit living in us today and God’s power and presence to enable us to live holy, obedient lives of faith. We have the New Covenant and God’s law written on our hearts and minds as promised through the prophet Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 31:31-34) We are born again by the Spirit, living seed of God’s word, and adopted as God’s children. We are being transformed daily by the Spirit by an ever-increasing glory! Trust and obedience should be so much easier for us under the Spirit than for those who lived under the law. Check your trust level in Jesus Christ, the one who totally trusted and obeyed on our behalf! Rest in His complete obedience and grace today! In His Love, Pastor John