Readings for today: Jeremiah 30-32, Psalms 21
God is faithful. This is the bedrock belief for the Christian. No matter what life may bring. No matter what hardship comes our way. No matter how much grief and suffering we have to endure. No matter how dark the days may get. No matter how terrible and terrifying life may become. No matter how far we go astray. No matter how much we sin. God is faithful. He is faithful to discipline us, often by letting us face the consequences of the choices we have made. He is faithful to restore us, after we repent and turn from our wicked ways. He is faithful to stand by our side, drawing near the broken-hearted and crushed in spirit. He is faithful to find us and lead us back home, leaving the ninety-nine sheep to find the one who is lost.
God is faithful. I can’t tell you how often this thought has brought me comfort. God’s faithfulness comforted me when I was a teenager, wrestling with the shame over my father’s alcoholism. God’s faithfulness comforted me when I was newly married and we lost our first child. God’s faithfulness comforted me when I was in the depths of despair after the church I tried to plant imploded all around me. God has always been faithful. He has never left me or forsaken me. He heard every cry. He saw every tear. He took every harsh word I threw His way when I was angry and afraid. He descended with me into the depths of the darkness of depression. And when I had nothing left. When I was exhausted and emotionally spent. When I was physically at the end of my strength. When I had no way out. No more moves to make or schemes to hatch or ways to escape. When the walls closed in all around me and everything was taken away. He remained. He was there. He walked with me through the ruins of my shattered life and promised healing and restoration.
God is faithful. This is the testimony of Jeremiah from our passage today. He is faithful to His people. Faithful to His covenant. Faithful to Himself. He will not leave us in exile forever. He will not let death and destruction have the last word. He will not let His world go to ruin. He is faithful. He is at work. He will heal. He will restore. He will redeem. He will prevail. He is God. Listen again to the beautiful words from Jeremiah, promising a new day, a new hope, and a new future. “Look, the days are coming” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt — my covenant that they broke even though I am their master” — the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” — the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 CSB)
These days aren’t just coming, friends, they are already here! Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God makes a new covenant. He offers anyone who would believe in Him eternal life. He extends this offer beyond the borders of Israel to every tribe, tongue, and nation on the earth. His plan is to redeem all creation and invite every people group into His Kingdom. This is God’s plan and God is faithful. He is at work even now to bring it to pass. Will you join Him?
Readings for tomorrow: Jeremiah 33-36, Psalms 22