GOD’S UNBREAKABLE COVENANT WITH MAN
Part 6
So how do we tap into the ultimate covenant that came through Jesus Christ? Ephesians 2:8-9 lets us know that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” So, if there are no works that can tap you into the promises and blessings presented with the covenant, how in the world do you tap in?
The Scripture above uses the term “through faith.” So many times, Christians are living trapped inside of a thought process that is telling them that if they perform well enough, they will enhance their standing with God and maybe, at one point, actually be right with God. Not only is this not true, but it produces the opposite of righteousness in and through us. In the economy of God, right believing is what produces right living. As we read in the book of Galatians yesterday, God does not give you his Holy Spirit or cause miracles to happen through you because of your human effort but only through believing what you heard. Galatians 3:5
Believing, therefore, is not found in human effort but rather in the absence of human effort. The issue is not trying hard to believe but instead entering into the place of resting in the faith of God or, you might say, the faithfulness of God! The children of Israel were not able to enter the promise land because they were pursuing it via human effort and not by faith. The promises granted in the covenant we have through Jesus Christ declare all of God’s blessing and goodness that he longs to impart into us and through us! Oh, yes! There is a wonderful promise land for you! It is still available!
Hebrews 4:1-3a Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest,
God is longing for you to step into the promises granted to Abraham as well as all the promises declared in his new covenant! God longs to reconcile you to himself so that all the blessings he has in store for you can our possession! Can you work it up? Absolutely not! It has never been and will never be accessed through human effort but rather through resting in the faithfulness of God!
Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, stepping into the glorious freedom, victory, and prosperity that God longs to give us can be so easily missed because of its simplicity. We are so inclined to try to access it by works and pursue it via human effort, but how fruitless and debilitating are the dividends of this kind of pursuit. Today God is longing for you to let go of all your preconceived ideas of what religion might have told you and step into the glorious freedom of surrendering to, and resting in, the finished work of…
GOD’S UNBREAKABLE COVENANT WITH MAN
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