Last time, we talked about our blood covenant with God through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Because Jesus is the Son of Abraham, and we are counted as children of Abraham through faith in Jesus, we have both the Old Testament covenant promises of Abraham and the New Testament covenant promises available to us.
Why then, do we so often fail to obtain those things that are promised? Part of the problem is our lack of understanding of what is truly ours. If we do not draw on (appropriate) the covenant promises, whether through ignorance or unbelief, we do not receive what is rightfully ours.
There is another problem though -- and it is a huge obstacle to obtaining the promises. There are many in the Church who mistakenly assume the right of covenant, all the while breaking that covenant through disobedience to the Lord.
The covenant is a blood covenant, and it has been made with us at a horrendous cost -- the suffering and death of our heavenly Father's precious Son. This blood covenant only avails for us through repentance -- the renouncement of all that would grieve His heart. We dare not take the covenant casually. God certainly does not. He inspired the author of Hebrews to write, "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:29). This is not written to nonbelievers, but to the Church.
There is much available to us in our covenant with God through Jesus. We must diligently seek to obtain those things which He has provided for us, for it pleases God greatly when we do so. But we must do it rightly – honoring the God of our covenant with our full devotion, obedience, and holy respect for Him.
From An Encouraging Word, the weekly devotional of The River Ministries
