Encounter: Listen for the covenants, the blessings and the promises in your 730 Bible Reading Plan from Genesis 9:8-17 through chapter 21. Underline or write them down in your journal.
Promises, Promises. How many times have we heard this expression or said it ourselves? Our experiences with the relationships in our lives from the time we are young have made most of us more than skeptical of the promises people offer us. Even our own failures to keep all of the promises we’ve ever made rub our conscience with the sandpaper of guilt or regret.
Still, there is something within us that hopes for promises kept, treaties guarded, oaths honored. Stirring from our “pure center,” what Beth Booram describes as from the “self that knows God and is known by God comes a desire for faithfulness. This makes sense when we remember we are made in the image of God.
This hope made me think about the time we traveled to Europe with our jumping off point being the most iconic city of romance with a picture of promise or the broken thereof. It is the Pont des Arts, or Love Lock Bridge, located in Paris, over the beautiful River Seine.
Thousands upon thousands of locks have been lovingly attached to this bridge over the years as couples made promises of love and commitment. So many locks that in 2015 part of the bridge collapsed causing officials to prohibit placing locks on this favorite tourist site. Our lock didn’t make it. I try to imagine what the bridge would look like if every lock that represented a promise not kept were to be removed. How many locks would remain?
It gives me great relief to know that if there was a bridge that represented the love of God with locks that were placed to image his covenants, his blessings, and his promises, God’s locks would remain forever, never failing. God establishes a covenant and tells Abraham, our father, I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant; I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you (Gen. 17:7). And then Paul brings us into the covenants when he says, And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you (Gal.3:29). What we have been given is life with God through the covenant of Christ himself. A bridge that will never collapse.
This Sunday we will be talking about the partnership God invites us into through his covenants, blessings and promises and how this can usher in an even more powerful understanding of the new covenant we celebrate around Christ’s table. **Pastor Matt will also share with us an exciting partnership opportunity for our young people. Prepare to “Leave Your Comfort Zones!”
BLESS!
Pastor T
Reflect: As you read about the covenants, the blessings and the promises, begin listing what was God giving in the Covenant and what was God asking of the person he was making the Covenant with. What were the blessings? What was God promising?
Spiritual Practice: There was always a response from those whom God would make a covenant with. Noah and Abraham built altars, made offerings to the Lord or simply lived in the way God directed them (including circumcision, link below if you’ve ever wondered what that’s all about). With the gift of life given to us in Christ, spend a few minutes writing a letter to God responding in words and in prayer to this gift. You can either keep it to yourself or share it with a trusted friend.
Gather: Share with your small group what you offered the Lord for the gift of life through covenants, blessings and promises from the altar of your heart.
Some additional resources for this week’s topic of Covenants
The Bible Project - Covenants
His Only Son - Movie about Abraham
Every wonder why circumcision? What does it have to do with Jews and for us?
An excellent overview by John Piper
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