What Would God Have Us Write On Our Hearts Now?
Good Morning Friends,
There are lots of blessings we have been given by God. Most frequently we might think of the Covenant of Abraham and its linkage with faith but that is just the beginning for we have been blessed to be a blessing in more ways than one. We have been filled with abilities, abundance and authority and the assurance that things will work out for the best. We have been given a fellowship of believers and deliverance from God’s wrath. We have been given eternal life and faith and family. We have been given forgiveness and freedom from fear if we accept the offer. We have been given friendships and grace and happiness and guidance and hope and joy and God’s intercession and knowledge and love and mercy and ministry and peace and prosperity and wisdom and maybe even victory. God gives us so many blessings that go way beyond the laws of Moses in ordering our lives.
So, What Would God Have Us Write On Our Hearts Now?
Scripture: But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:33 (NRSV)
When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.
Romans 2:14-16 (NRSV)
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
John 13:34-35 (NRSV)
and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:5 (NRSV)
Message: Six-hundred years before Jesus came, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant that God would make with his people. The covenant is not so much a new law. It is not the knowledge of right and wrong that was inflected on Adam. It is not the Ten Commandments or the expanded list that follows. The law that God wants to have written on our hearts and minds and embedded in our very being is Christ himself. It is love, for God is love. And we are to love with all our heart, mind and strength. And what makes this possible is that God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. This is the new covenant. And the beauty is that God knows exactly where we are and what we are capable of doing so can perfectly love us into the person God designed us to be. Under the old covenant, the law was a rule for the weak to obey and it was impossible. Under the new law of love, the Spirit of Christ is given to us, loving us, and loving others through us. Under the old covenant people loved others because they feared punishment. But under the new covenant, we love because God lives in us and it is his nature to love. Friends under the old rules we had to make an effort to obey but now, if God’s Spirit is in us, we actually desire to obey. It’s a whole new way of life that gives life. This is what God would have us write on our hearts. Friends, we have each been given gifts. God’s love draws them out of us so that might glorify God in our lives.
Pray the Spirit of Life in Christ delivers us from evil. Pray we become a new creation with new hopes and desires. Pray we no longer want to sin. Pray our desire is to love God and others. Pray we are not so much consumed with following rules but more in loving others. Pray Christ lives in us and God’s love is in our hearts and minds overflowing into the lives of others. Pray we have God’s love written on our hearts.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 