"I Will Make a New Covenant With My People" - God

Image of a dove descending to fulfill God's promise to establish a new covenant with His people.

Today’s Bible reading* goes along nicely with our church’s Bible memory passage this month, Ezekiel 36:26-27, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (ESV)

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the LORD’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the LORD’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the LORD’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the LORD’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 (CSB)

God promises to do something wonderful under the New Covenant: He Himself will equip His people to live a God-glorifying life. As we saw in Joel 2:28–29, 32, God promises to indwell His people with His Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that His people would be empowered to tell others everywhere about the Good News. (Acts 1:8) And Peter said that on the Day of Pentecost, God had fulfilled His promise revealed through Joel. (Acts 2:14-16)

Application

God said He had big plans for His people, to restore them, if they would only seek Him with all that they are. (Jeremiah 29:11-14) Of course, that was God’s plan all along. (Deuteronomy 6:5-6)

So, how thoroughly do you seek Him? Do you seek Him every day? Do you seek to know Him better and love Him more every day?

* Chapters covered in today’s reading:
Jeremiah 29
Jeremiah 30
Jeremiah 31
Jeremiah 32

This devotional was originally published on August 16, 2021.

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