Cross My Heart and Hope to Die
Good Morning Friends,
When we were children, there was a saying we would often hear and sometimes say related to promises we were making and the likelihood that if we broke that promise something bad would happen. The last part of the phrase was what I imagined would be the most painful thing possible, which was to “stick a needle in my eye.” The first part you have heard before… it goes like this… Cross My Heart and Hope to Die.
Scripture: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’
Genesis 3:15 (NRSV)
12Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’*
Genesis 12:1-3 (NRSV)
remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:12 (NRSV)
Message: Even as kids we understood the importance of promises and to be careful about what promises we made. They needed to be sincere as the title of today’s devotion is designed to impart. But it is also perhaps a teaching moment about what God’s promises are really about. You see covenants were God’s way of dramatically driving home how serious His promises were, and how committed God is to fulfilling what He has promised.
Perhaps the most famous is the one in Genesis 12 with Abraham and the promises made to him in his story that did not just point to the coming of Jesus…but pointed to the foundation of what Jesus came to do. But then there is one earlier promise in Genesis that is even more closely linked to the story of the birth of Jesus. You see in God’s response
to
Adam and Eve having sinned, is a promise that is the plan for one who would be born to defeat sin… It is nothing less than God crossing His heart and hoping to die so we might be saved. It starts with the story of Adam and Eve and the amazing thing is that it does not end with despair, but with hope. God, in the midst of his judgment, promises that a day will come when one of Eve’s children will utterly annihilate the power of sin! This is the hope of Christmas that crosses our heart with the foreknowledge of the crucifixion and resurrection. It is the hope of Christ and the power of promises. Yes there is sadness in the story but also such great love and joy and yes…hope in the promises of God. Friends, we have been invited to confront the mystery of suffering and of evil with one who has promised to share the burden of our pain and sin. And that is a promise that should bring us hope this season.
Pray we realize that covenants are cut in the process of sacrifice. Pray we realize that when God makes a promise God plans on keeping it. Pray we realize that one of God’s promises must have brought tears to His eyes. Pray we realize that we do not have to be important, impressive, strong, rich, smart or powerful in this world for God to want to use us. Pray we trust, believe and have faith in God. Pray we realize that the only way we will ever make it is by embracing the sincere promise of Jesus who died so we might have hope to live.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 