WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD ... start over

Sometimes we just need to start over.

While putting up wallpaper or laying tile, no matter what you do, things just don't seem to line up correctly. Little fixes and mends don't help. The only thing to do is start over.

While playing a difficult piece on the piano and you start to stumble, sometimes the best thing to do is just start the whole piece over.

In last weeks YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question, "Which contract would you like to re-negotiate?" The top 3 answers were...

1. 60% of those voting said that they wish that they could re-negotiate some kind of contract.
2. 20% of the readers said they wish they could re-negotiate the interest rate on their credit card.
3. Another 20% voted and said re-negotiating their job description would be nice.

At some point, we all wish we could re-negotiate something. Sometimes we just need a fresh start or we need to start over.

At some point in time, God decided that things weren't going well under the Old Covenant. People, powerless to fight their own tendency to sin, repeatedly broke the laws He had carefully laid down. God decided that what people really needed was a new start ... a new agreement by which reconcilation could be found.

Through Jeremiah, God specifically tells us how this covenant will be new:

*The new covenant will be a covenant of the heart (Jeremiah 31:33b)
"I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God"

*The new covenant will be one that we can all understand and abide by (Jeremiah 31:34)
"No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord."

*The new covenant will have built-in forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:34b)
"For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

God has given each of us an opportunity to start over. Writing God's law on our hearts is a matter of openness to the Holy Spirit, who teaches us all things. The Holy Spirit helps us to take what we know in our minds and let it truly touch our hearts.

HAS GOD'S COVENANT BEEN WRITTEN UPON YOUR HEART?

YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL...Please vote in this weeks poll. You can find it on the side bar of this blog. Your opinion really does matter!!