242. God will do us Good
Jeremiah 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
God promises an eternal covenant, which was sealed for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. This covenant promise includes four promises: 1) the Lord will not turn away from us, 2) He will do us good, 3) He will put His fear in the heart, 4) we will not depart from Him.
The refrain, “they will be my people and I will be their God,” is an everlasting covenant that means He will not turn away from us and we will not depart from Him. The bond is tight, secure, and everlasting. We are in Him and He in us, and nothing will ever separate us ever again forever. No matter what else happens to us in our life we will always have the Lord with us and in us. The interesting promise, however, is this: “You will not leave Me.” How can God say this? Surely, we can leave Him and break the covenant if we want to. We have such a free will. We can reject. But the promise is sure, because we will not want to. The sealing and holding of the Holy Spirit is so strong that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Forever in eternity, we can depart, but we will never do so for we do not want to. KTrust the holding power of the Spirit within. He won’t let us go. He has ways of pulling us back when we start to ignore, stray, or even reject the Lord. Love is the binding power.
The Lord will put His fear in our hearts. Fear = Faith. We can’t solidly trust our own faith: we doubt; we waver; we slip. But this is His faith; He gives it; He seals it; He holds on fast for us. Good News: we are not left to our own faith, repentance, decision, efforts, or good works. We have His Fear. We will not leave Him, even though God allows us to absent ourselves from the Gospel, which we receive from the Bible and from the Church. The Gospel is the power to save, hold, keep, and secure us in Him. And it is everlasting.
Finally, God promises to be with us to do us good. A god is what we look to for our highest good. Only the one true God actually keeps this promise. He is good, and He does good. At certain times, like in a disaster, tragedy, pandemic, or other bad things, we are tempted to wonder if God is really good. During those times we need to receive personally this promise: He is with us to do us good.