God's Unending Promises


How many promises do you make in a week? How many are you unable to keep or do you have to change?
Signs of the promise I made at
my wedding
Promises are tricky things that can either bind a relationship or tear it apart. If you keep your promises then the relationship is strengthened and both parties enjoy the fruits of this honesty and commitment. When a promise is broken, distrust and disappointment can seep in to the cracks and begin to rot the bounds of any relationship from the inside out. Promises can be used as a way to strengthen or a means of discipline and punishment. 
Promises I made at Ordination
God made a covenant (a fancy word for promise) with Israel beginning with Abraham and then it was reinforce in the desert as they escaped Pharaoh. With Abraham, God promise, that Abraham and all of his decedents with be God’s people. He gives them a sign of that promise. Then later in the desert God gives Moses the 10 Commandments so that the people know how to keep their side of the promise or covenant. God is always reminding Israel that God has chosen them.
When we get to Jeremiah, it appears that God has different plans for Israel. It seems like God has changed his mind. This is no the case. The people of Israel are returning to Israel after being exiled to another country where they were not close to God. They had to learn a new way to keep their relationship with God strong. As they are returning God is reminding them of the Covenant that was made in the desert so many years ago. God is telling the people of Israel that God has still chosen them to be his people. God is forgiving them for the way that they broke their promises and forging a new relationship with them.

It takes love, forgiveness and understanding for us
to be able to keep all our promises. 

Sometimes those promises overlap

 This new relationship will be built on love, forgiveness and a deep understanding of who God is. No longer will the covenant be use as means to measure whether they are worthy of love. It will now be a way to strengthen their connection to God and everyone will have access to the knowledge of God.
God never breaks a promise. We often do not understand how that promise plays out because we can’t see the whole picture but we can be assured that God keep his promises always.


Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sign of God's promise to us
31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 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. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
Conversation Starters:
  • Have you ever made a promise that you did not or could not keep?
  • Why were you unable to keep your side of the promise?
  • How did your friend of family react when you didn’t keep that promise?
  • How did you try to fix the situation? Have you asked for forgiveness?
  • What promises has God made with us?
  • What can we do when we break a promise with God?
  • Do you believe that God forgives us when we break our promises?

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