The God of Covenants
Mercedes López-Miranda(Audio: Español)
RESUMEN:
The Bible is a record of God's covenants with his people. From the beginning, God created humanity to sustain and love him every day. The first time the word "covenant" appears in the Bible is in Genesis 6 when God made a covenant with Noah. God initiated this covenant for the benefit of Noah and his descendants. The covenant was established on unconditional promises, based on agape love, and permanent commitments. Covenant relationships are not just with God, but also between people, like Jonathan and David, and Ruth and Naomi. As covenant children, we are called to extend these covenant qualities to others in our lives.
God is a God of covenants, and as his covenant children, we are called to extend covenant relationships to others in our lives. A covenant relationship is based on unconditional promises, practical love, and permanent commitment, while a contract relationship is based on self-centered benefits and can be ended if the other party does not fulfill their part. The primitive church was characterized by a covenantal love, and marriage is meant to bear witness to God's love on earth. However, many marriages fall into a contract mentality, leading to divorce and other relationship problems. It is important to resist the temptation of a contract mentality and strive for covenant relationships, which can be difficult but ultimately bring blessings to future generations. The main vehicle for transmitting the covenant mentality is the family, which is called to be a covenant home set apart for the Lord.
The covenant mentality is an important aspect of our spiritual DNA as children of God. It is transmitted through our family and home, where we have the privilege of teaching it to the next generation. We should not underestimate the impact of covenant relationships with those closest to us and should strive to model love and faithfulness. The birth of a grandchild reinforced the importance of covenant relationships for the speaker, and we should all strive to live as covenant children in all our relationships. We should ask for God's help to increase our ability to love and commit to investing in the well-being of others. Ultimately, God has made a perpetual covenant with us, and our response is to embrace it with gratitude and live according to it. A blessing from Hebrews 13 is offered for sealing this word in our hearts.This morning I am going to share about the God of covenants. How many of you had your heart and spirit moved when you sang God of covenants a little while ago? How beautiful, right? Ours is so precious. He is a truly covenant God. From the beginning that he created the human being, he created us not as some think to be in heaven as a judge, serious, accusing, punitive, but quite the opposite. God's plan for humanity, the reason why he created humanity is to sustain and love him every day. And that's not just for the ones he created in the beginning, but it's for us today, and it's for all the rest of humanity ahead.
The Bible is actually a record of God's covenants with his people. And it is very interesting that the word pact occurs throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, it occurs 300 times, that is, what is a specifically pact word, there are also other words like oath, promise that mean something similar, but the word pact it is an important word to the Lord and it is recorded there in many ways.