Read Jeremiah 31:21-33
“The Lord will create a new thing on earth…” (22b)
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“When I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel…”( v31)
Some Thoughts…
Unlike ever before, God makes a promise, hundreds of years (half a century or more) before the fact, something new was in the mix of history. The world as we knew it would be forever different somehow. God Himself would one day walk in our weariness, struggle with our weakness, and carry our burdens in ways we never could. He would develop from a tiny divine embryo into the God-man. Something new, unlike ever before was coming!
God was going to do more than just tell us how to live (the old covenant). He was going to do even more than show us how to live. He would come in order that His Spirit could enter into the souls of those He calls His own to empower us to live! He would give us a new set of rules to live by… Grace-filled rules that that have the aroma of something familiar and true. Life lived from the inside out; age-old laws written on our hearts. This is a new life lived in harmony with our Creator. A relationship He described by saying, “I will be their God, they will be my people.”
This is life lived in freedom – our sin forgiven; forgotten forever! The new way is personal and every individual would bear the responsibility of choosing it or rejecting it (see v29-30) … Yes, God has done a new thing … and it will remain a new thing day-in and day-out as we walk with Him, learn of Him, experience Him! And that new-born in the manger reminds me again that God is doing a new thing in someone today… I pray I can experience that too.
A Prayer…
Father as I celebrate another Christmas help me realize that the old, old story of the baby in the manger is fresh and alive and that You are making me new every day