Listen

Listen and come to me; listen, and you will live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful loyalty to David.

Isaiah 55:3

Think

Covenants show up throughout scripture. They are a sacred two-way promise, with each party declaring what they will do for the relationship. Who do you live in covenant with? Do you have shared promises with the people in your household, the folks you work or learn with, or with others from your community? What might a covenant between you and God look like in this moment of your life?

Most biblical covenants can be boiled down to what we hear today: “Listen, and come to me; listen, and you will live.” God promises to hold us safe and secure, and we promise to listen for God’s word in our lives. It sounds simple, but living into a covenant can be quite difficult. Holding the promises you’ve made steady over the demands on your time and your heart is challenging.

In God’s covenant with you, what do you imagine God’s promises would be? If God asks that you listen as your part of the promise, what can you do today to fulfill that promise?

Paris Ball

Pray

Lord God, you made us to be in relationship with you and with each other, and you mark our relationship with promises.

Help me to remember the promises you make and the promises you ask of me, and give me the strength to live into our covenant.

Help me listen for you in my life.

Amen.

Go

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread his praise from shore to shore;
how he loveth, ever loveth,
changeth never, nevermore;
how he watches o’er his loved ones,
died to call them all his own;
how for them he intercedeth,
watcheth o’er them from the throne.

S. Trevor Francis in “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” (1890)