Resilient: Becoming Faithful in an Upside Down World

posted by Megan Oates | Mar 29, 2022

3.29

Jeremiah 31:31-34

https://my.bible.com/bible/116/JER.31.31-34.NLT


Today, we are reading about the promise of a new covenant. The old covenant was between God and the Jews as they left Egypt and was based purely on obedience to those laws. However, the new covenant is based on forgiveness and a relationship with Jesus. We don’t have to pursue the law out of duty, but the Holy Spirit puts it on our hearts to make us willing to follow His laws. Verse 33 sums up a beautifully redemptive story, “...I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” How beautiful is it that the old covenant was written on a slab of stone, but the new covenant is written on the hearts of people?


The old covenant demanded to be followed, while the new covenant, a relationship with Jesus, is a choice. Which is easier for you to obey: a law that you know you have to follow or a law that you know you want to follow?


We have been given the great opportunity to choose to be in a relationship with Jesus, not forcefully but voluntarily. Likewise, we have been given the great opportunity to follow His laws. Once we’re in that relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us that desire to follow Him. Do you recall feeling that shift between having to and wanting to?