"I Will Be a God to You"

10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

 

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

 

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

This promise is hard for us to settle into.

Now we can understand why the writer of Hebrews wrote earlier:

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4: 11)

We need to work at not working, so to speak, to believe that He has taken care of everything.

That part has been the hardest for me, and it does take an element of labor, or rather patient enduring.

For the longest time, the setup of "what are you going to do about. . .?" is a prevalent concern in the back of many people's heads. A litany of concerns would rise up, and then we spend the greater part of ourmental energy answering these fears and concerns.

Yet the inner discussion never brings peace.

The unswerving, unwavering promises of God, they bring peace. This peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23), by the way, not something which we generate in our effort.

But the matter of "I will be a God to you" is so crucial. This promise is based on the truth that He is propitious, has paid for our sins, has remembered them in the body of His Son Jesus.

He wants to rest us now, if we will let Him (Matthew 11: 28)

Like too many people in this world, I have confused feelings with rest. That is wrong.

He is a God to me, regardless of how I feel, or what others may think, or even anything that I or someone else does or does not do.

 

When we resolve to rest in this truth, then these verses make more sense:

"17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" (Ephesians 6: 17)

The helmet of salvation does not just mean that I am saved, but that Jesus is still in the business of saving me:

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." (1 Thessalonians 5: 8)

Every Christian should have a confident expectation of good because of all that Jesus has done for us. Amen!

He promised to be a God to us. Let us pray for a growing revelation of this love (Ephesians 3: 16-19), and grow in grace and knowledge of this wonderful savior! (2 Peter 3: 18).