A Covenant-Keeping God

Two nights ago, I was over at Shawn’s house and we were doing family worship with the kids. We all sat in a circle on the living room floor (haha- all the furniture is out to get ready for my furniture to come in) and Shawn read from Genesis 21. He finished and as always, you could see questions bursting out of little eyes. After answering several questions (more and more I’m reminded that the Bible isn’t rated PG), the question came:

“What’s a covenant?”

Ah. Yes. Let’s talk about that. As I watched my future husband explain the meaning of covenant to his two children, so many thoughts and emotions flew through me.

He explained how our God is a covenant-keeping God. One that makes promises and ALWAYS keeps them. A promise-keeping God. Ever faithful, always true to what he says. True to what he had promised Abraham and true to what he promises us.

In that same chapter, Abraham also made a covenant with Abimelech. We talked about how that was an agreement between two people.

He told the kids that in 12 days, he and I were going to covenant together in marriage. That at the wedding, we were going to make promises to each before God and before our witnesses.

And one of the kids asked with a laugh, “Why? Why would you make a promise to each other?”

Suddenly, my heart felt broken. I realized they didn’t understand the permanence of vows. The permanence of the wedding covenant. I sat there so thankful that we got to explain that to them.

I also realized with a weight how much these little eyes would be watching my marriage. They would hear those promises made before God and would now understand that this was a serious thing to do. They would be watching. Talk about being humbled. Talk about realizing your dependence on the Lord.

I’m grateful that in now TEN days, when I stand before the Lord and covenant together with Shawn to be husband and wife, I can stand there remembering the promises God has made toward me. Knowing that I am not dependent on my strength but on his. Praise the Lord! Aware that I am in Christ and Christ is in me and because the Holy Spirit dwells in me, I have the ability to do what he has called me to do.

I’m grateful for a covenant-keeping God.