Have you ever wanted to buy something brand new? The feeling of owning an object that is only yours? There is something about shopping for new cars I like but I cannot put my finger on it? On the other hand, I detest looking for used cars because I never seem to have my sorting hat on in order to figure out which group they should be placed in, fair, possible break down the minute you drive away and the total piece of junk in sheep’s clothing category.
I always seem to choose a piece of junk. The moment I crack open the hood and see an engine and drive train has just been steam cleaned I am hooked, when the rational thing to do is automatically put it in the possibly going to break down category.
I am also a sucker for shiny objects, which is how I discovered my wife. I got her from a new car lot and I am happy to say that we have been married for…hmm let’s see now, two thousand eighteen minus one thousand eighty seven is, wait for it… ah, oh yes 30 years, I mean 31 years. I will not go through an entire mental gymnastics routine to tell you which month and day.
With the New Year upon us many have hastily made, similar to a new car purchase, New Year’s resolutions. I have decided not to blurt out mine in case someone discovers me perusing the frozen dessert isle at the store. Personally, I believe that these kinds of promises, although healthy, should be placed in the possible break down the minute you drive away category.
While men will continue to disappoint us, cheat us, perform additional un-necessary mechanical work to the piece of junk we just purchased, God will never fail us. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. While men are the original promise breakers, God is the original promise keeper and that is a promise you can take to the bank.
Roughly 600 years before Christ God inspired the prophet Jeremiah to write “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, say ing, Know the Lord, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:33 NKJV.
Jesus of Nazareth would be not only fulfilling this promise by being the long awaited Messiah but also by becoming the Lamb of God. Jesus said concerning the cup at Passover “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matthew 26:27 NKJV.
While it is true that God will never break a promise, all of us on the other hand will. So I want to encourage all of us to keep our promises we made this year to eat the right foods, pursue weight loss, stop smoking, moderate alcohol consumption and start exercising; all of which will save us money and will make us feel better about ourselves.
However, that being said, there is only one place to take our sin. There is only one cure, one solution to our sin problem, one promise keeper and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus promised His blood would make a new covenant for the remission of sin. He promised to put his laws in our minds and write them on our hearts and that is a promise you can hold onto, invest in and advise others to participate in.
Unlike a used car destine for the junk yard, after throwing thousands of dollars at it, our faith is based on a promise that will never be broken. Our faith is based on a gift and can therefore never be purchased. Our faith was not an afterthought but rather a design that was forged before the foundations of the world were wrought. So don’t put your trust in the material world but rather trust in God.
