The Lord Will Keep His Covenant

But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me. "

"Remember these things, O Jacob,
for you are my servant, O Israel.
I have made you, you are my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you.

I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you."

(Isaiah 49:14-16; 44:21,22 NIV)

One of the most powerful things I have learned about my relationship with God is that it is He who keeps covenant with us. While genuine change must take place in our lives as Christians to show that we are His, it is all an act of Grace. From the very beginning to the very end God sustains the relationship.

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day." (John 6:37-39 NIV)

Before time began, God the Father made a covenant with the Son and the Holy Spirit that the Father would elect people from every nation to be "to the praise of His glorious grace" (see Eph. 1). It was in His mind before we even had the chance to sin. Paul says something interesting about this in one place in the New Testament.

"So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Timothy 1:8-10 NIV)

The grace Paul is talking about is the grace of salvation that God has for His children. It was in God's mind before the world began and was His aim in the creation in the world. His plan of redemption, at least from the view of eternity, was finished before the world was even created.

Even though this work was finished before time, it wasn't until around 2,000 years ago that Jesus died on the Cross and said "It is finished" on earth and a large number of people saw the revelation of God in Christ in a much fuller picture. Even today it is sometimes hard to grasp that God has not left us in the mess we find ourselves in or forgotten us.

There have been moments in my life when I wondered if Jesus ascended back to heaven and forgot us here on earth. The plan of the Church seemed like a futile idea to me and I felt so helpless that "this is who He left to do His work". Knowing myself and the condition of others in the Body, I wondered how God would ever accomplish His purposes and that He might as well give up and come back if He had only people like me to work with. The constant nagging feelings of many people wondering where God is and if He has forgotten them are not uncommon to even the most godly saints who have walked the earth.

But in these times, we need to look to a God who has all of history in His hands and know that He had us in His mind to be an inheritance for His Son before the ages began. We are so precious to God to bringing Him the most glory. The writer of Hebrews says:

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2 NIV)

Jesus had joy to purchase His Bride and is patiently awaiting for His Inheritance to come to Him at the consumation of the Age.

The Father had planned this from the start and The Son paid such a high price for us that He "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" (Phil. 2:6-8 NIV)



"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me. "
(Isaiah 49:15,16 NIV)