Christ Church Daily Devotion Dec 26 2023

Jeremiah speaks about God's promise of a new covenant with the people. The covenant will be different from the old one and will involve God's law being written on their hearts. The Holy Spirit is essential for understanding and living out the intent of scripture. This promise of a new covenant is also emphasized in the New Testament, particularly in John and 2 Corinthians. We should rejoice in the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit. Welcome to Christ Church's Daily Devotion for December 26, 2023. Today we will be reading from Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is a covenant I will make with the people of Israel, after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, Know the Lord, because they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Jeremiah is God's voice, speaking about the promise of the Lord's new covenant that he will make with the people. Of course, knowledge of God's instructions started with the prophets and others who spoke for God in biblical times and starts with the Bible and people who speak for God now. However, knowledge is not nearly enough. We need to be empowered and transformed by the Holy Spirit of the living God who will place God's instructions on our hearts and make them a part of us. As important as the scriptures are, the Spirit who inspired them is also the one who is essential for us to understand and live the intent of scripture. The Holy Spirit will inform, transform, and conform God's people to be like Jesus, found in 2 Corinthians 3, 17-18. This promise of a new covenant also runs through the New Testament, but the work of the Spirit in this covenant is especially emphasized in John chapters 14-16 as Jesus promises the comforter or counselor or advocate or helper or friend. It is also emphasized powerfully in 2 Corinthians 3, which is probably a spiritual reflection about the fulfillment of God's promise recorded by Jeremiah. Read 2 Corinthians 3 after reading today's verses from Jeremiah. Rejoice that we have this promised time of grace and divine presence available to us in the Holy Spirit. Today's personal worship option, Almighty God, I rejoice in the sacrifice of Jesus and the work of your Holy Spirit to bring your promise of a new covenant alive in our day. I ask that the Spirit's power, His force, His grace be at work in me. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.