“This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Hebrews 8:10
The author of Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah 31 a promise that God had made. At the time the statement was originally made, the Israelites were under the Old Testament Law. That was the covenant God had made with the people. He had planned for a new covenant to be made in the future. That new covenant is seen in the New Testament.
A covenant is an old term of an agreement between two different parties that would be binding. Today the term would be a contract. God is making a contract with the people.
The old contract with God was to follow the Law that was given. There were many rules to that law and if any were broken, the whole law was broken. Breaking the law was sinning against God, which then brought about death.
People cannot uphold the law perfectly because of the sinful nature in them. The inside of a person had to be changed in order for them to live correctly before God.
The way God chose to change that was to write His laws upon the hearts, not just on a tablet for someone to read. This implies a change of heart. Under the Law a person had to obey God. Under the new covenant a person will want to please and obey God. The change is in the desires of a person’s heart.
Why do you do the things that you do? Especially the things for God.
Everything that you do falls under one of two reasons: for self, or for God. When you have God’s law written on your heart, you will want to do everything you do for God. Your heart will be focused on pleasing Him rather than others and self.
Is God’s Law written on your heart today? Or is it just something written in a book made hundreds of years ago? It will make a difference in your life.
I pray today that you will allow God’s Word to be written in your heart; that you will have His heart in your life; that God will be your God; and that you will live every area of your life for God.
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