Our God is Faithful
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for my for the forgiveness of sins
Matthew 26:28
We are currently in a series studying Exodus 34:6 and the character of God revealed through this Scripture: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
For more in depth guidance, we encourage you to check out the Bible Project’s series on the Character of God that also focuses on Exodus 34.
Also, if you missed any of the previous weeks in the series, you can find them here: week one, week two, week three, week four & week five.
This week we focus on how God is faithful and so we can trust Him, even when things are difficult.
Devotion: Our God is Faithful
Gather your family and read Exodus 34:6. Highlight the word faithfulness. What does it mean to be faithful? (allow for some answers) Right, it’s when you know something is going to happen and you can be sure of it. Like, we can be sure that the sun will come up tomorrow, so it’s a faithful sun. How do you think a person can be faithful? (have some discussion around this) Yes, a faithful person is someone who keeps their promises.
God is a promise keeper and He’s big on making promises. Throughout the Bible, God makes promises to people and He keeps his word. There are a few promises that are really important to know about because they help us understand God’s love and how we can follow Him.
In Genesis 12 and 15, God makes a covenant with Abram (who later becomes Abraham.) A covenant is another name for a strong promise, one that should not get broken and one where the two sides agree to each do their own part. In Genesis 12:2 God promises Abram this: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing”. Then, in Genesis 15:18, God adds to the covenant: “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land'”. God promised Abram a big family that would become a great country, one that would bless others and would live in a certain place. These are important because all of these things led to the growth of the people of Israel, who became known as God’s people.
Why did God make these promises? (allow for some answers) Yes, God wanted to have a good relationship with the people of Israel. He wanted them to know Him and to follow Him because He created people to be in close relationship with Him. Remember how Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the garden before sin came into the world? That’s how God always wants it to be, so He was making a new way for Abram and his family to have this kind of loving relationship again, even though sin was still around. God gave the people of Israel ways to have their sins taken care of and forgiven so they could get back parts of that relationship, but it wasn’t quite the same as life in the garden was for Adam & Eve in the beginning.
Fast forward now: in Matthew 26, we see Jesus talk about a new covenant. In verse 28 Jesus says this: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”. What is this new covenant do you think? (allow for answers) Yes, Jesus Himself became a sacrifice to forgive all sin. All we have to do is believe that Jesus did this for us and accept God’s love for us! So this new covenant is one that restores us into loving relationship with God, much like what Adam & Eve had before sin. We don’t have to do anything but believe in Jesus.
Right now, there is still sin, so we have to be wise and resist temptation as much as possible, but we are also given grace since Jesus already died for all sin. God also promises that, one day, Jesus will come again and then get rid of sin and evil forever–what a wonderful day that will be! Until then, we do our best to resist temptation and live as God’s beloved children! And we can do that because we know God is faithful–He keeps His promise to us that as long as we believe in Jesus, we are forgiven and can talk to God, listen to Him and be with Him as much as we want! What is your favorite way to spend time with God? (allow for answers)
Let’s close in prayer, thanking God for being faithful and asking for His help for us each to also be faithful.