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.

 

Let Me See Redemption Win

I woke up this morning feeling the epitome of one of my favorite songs. So much so that I listened to it on my drive to work:

I’m tired
I’m worn
My heart is heavy
From the work it takes to keep on breathing

I’ve made mistakes
I’ve let my hope fail
My soul feels crushed
By the weight of this world
And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left

Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart that’s frail and torn
I want to know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
‘Cause I’m worn
(Worn- Tenth Avenue North)

This week has worn me out, friends. I’ve been filling in for someone at work while she’s on vacation and let me tell ya, I thought I was pretty confident in her workload until she wasn’t sitting there watching me do it anymore. Suddenly moving big chunks of money around without guidance became stressful. I made (and fixed) mistakes all week long. I’ve felt a little lost and forgetful over stuff I think I should remember.

I’ve also been in several long meetings and working on things I’ve previously committed to. I don’t have phone service throughout the day where I work so my phone gets bombarded with texts as I drive home. Yesterday by the time I got home, I had 21 unread messages and that was just since lunch time! None of these were, “Hey how are you doing today?” type messages. All of them required some sort of action or decision from me. And people wonder why I turn my phone off sometimes.

So this morning when I woke up, I felt worn. Another line in that song particularly stands out to me. It says, “I’m worn, even before the day begins.” I feel that way every day so I identify with that on a very deep level. But even more so today.

As I was driving to work, freezing because my car can’t beat this kind of cold, I came around a turn and this view hit me:

You probably can’t even see it, but there is a beautiful sunrise and right in front of me, a faint rainbow. I could even see the other side of it. And softly playing on my radio was a song about God’s faithfulness. I breathed a sigh. Yes. Thank you, Jesus, for the reminder.

Yeah, I’ve had a crappy week. But not all of it. And yes, I’m stressed and overwhelmed. But that doesn’t change who God is or what he has done. He is constant and faithful. To ALL his promises. I was reminded of the flood and how he has kept every. single. one. of his promises before, since then, and will continue to do so for eternity.

What song did I listen to on my way home? Another favorite:

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
(Living Hope- Phil Wickham)