Day 47 - Covenant Love

Saturday September 8

Stacey gripped the wheel tighter and stared ahead at the highway.  “Here we go again”, she thought.  They’d had this argument hundreds of times before. 

“I just don’t know what to do anymore, Stace,”   Nothing I do makes you happy.  It’s not that I don’t love you but I’m getting tired.  I don’t know how much more of this fighting I can take.” 

“Love me? You don’t love me!  You’re always holding this bar of expectations over my head and no matter how hard I try and how high I jump, it’s always just out of my reach.  Why can’t you just love me, for me?  Why?”

“You see what I mean.  This is impossible!!   We’re killing each other.  We should just separate.”

“Mark, you know we can’t just walk away.  When we met we both knew so clearly that God brought us together for a purpose.  Are we just supposed to blatantly disobey God?”

“Do you think this is honoring God, living in hell like this? I can’t live like this, Stacey.  I can’t!”

“It’s always about you and your pain, what about what I feel?” Stacey started to cry.

“That’s what I’m trying to say! I can’t bear the thought that I’m the one to blame for all your misery.  Maybe we just need a break – get away from each other.”

“Mark, we covenanted…”

“I don’t care!  I can’t live like this.  Before God in heaven and all the angels around the throne, I break every covenant….”

BANG!  Suddenly thick white acrid smoke poured into the car. Stacey slammed on the brakes, praying they wouldn’t be rear ended or hit the concrete guard rail. Miraculously the car came to a stop, unscathed.

They rolled out of the car and a few minutes later they stood on the highway, staring at each other, gasping for air as the car continued to smoke beside them. 

“What in the world was that?” Mark exclaimed.

“Well,“ Stacey said, looking wryly at him, “at least we know Somebody didn’t like that prayer…”

God is a God of covenant and covenant is one of the foundational laws governing relationships in His kingdom.  But in the church we have allowed contract to replace covenant as the basis for many of our relationships.

A contract is about me getting my needs met.  I need my house painted, so I contract a painter to do the work.

A contract is based on performance; failure to perform according to the terms of the contract nullifies the contract.  If the painter doesn’t paint the house according to my expectations, I don’t have to pay him.

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8

A covenant is based on love and death to self.  If someone fails me, disappoints me, or doesn’t meet my expectations for our relationship, I cover with love, I forgive, I persevere, I hope.  I choose to remain committed and faithful, regardless of whether my wants, needs, hopes, desires, expectations are fulfilled or not. 

The beauty of God-ordained covenantal relationships is that they were never meant to be sustained solely by the strength of human desire or effort.  Covenant relationships in the body are under girded by the greater power of His covenant with us as believers.  It is this covenant that gives us access to the power a love that never fails. 

After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself…And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt. 1 Samuel 18:1, 3-4

Then Jonathan said to David…. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. But show me unfailing kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family-not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the LORD call David's enemies to account." And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.   1 Samuel 20:12-17

While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. "Don't be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this." The two of them made a covenant before the LORD. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh. 1 Samuel 23:15-18

The story of Jonathan and David is an amazing example of the power of covenant love. Jonathan was the son of Saul and rightful heir to the throne.  Yet his love for David blinded him to the jealousy and competition that consumed his father Saul.  Love caused him to enter into covenant relationship and lay down his own natural right to the throne to serve what God wanted for David – and for the kingdom.  

Sadly, Jonathan never became David’s second – he was killed in battle with Saul.  Yet David didn’t consider Jonathan’s death the way out of his promise.  Instead many years and many victories later, as a powerful ruler he still longed to find a way to honour the covenant of love that burned in his heart.

David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" 2 Samuel 9:1

And there was Mephibosheth, a poor crippled son of Jonathan.  Called to the king’s presence, he shook in fear knowing the animosity and destruction his grandfather had tried to bring upon the man who now summoned him.  What grace awaited him, he could never have imagined.

"Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table."  2 Samuel 9:7

Every one of us has broken relationships in our lives – relationships we knew were ordained of God but through the enemy’s cunning deceits, through our own weaknesses and brokenness, through our fears or wounds, we have allowed these relationships to be broken.  Today and tomorrow, during our last day of rest during the consecration call, let’s take time do a relationship inventory with God.  Let’s allow the Lord speak to us about any relationships of divine origin that are not now in divine order or alignment with His purposes.  Maybe He will prompt us to re-connect, by a letter, a phone call or an invitation to go for coffee.  Or maybe He will tell us that we need to repent for what we have done but move on, closing that chapter of our life with a commitment to walk in a new way, in the days that are to come.  Whatever He says, may He grant us the grace to be fully obedient to His will.    

As we long to see His Kingdom established in His church, may the cry of our hearts be to see this law of covenant set as a foundation again in our lives, families, churches, cities, provinces and nation.  May our commitment be that whatever God has joined together, we as man will never put asunder.  And may the body of Christ once again be known as followers of “the Way” – the most excellent way.

Let’s pray together.  Father, I come to you now with this simple prayer.  Lord I ask you to open my heart and bring to my remembrance covenantal relationships, ordained by You, that have been broken.  Speak to me Lord Your instructions and I promise I will do all that You tell me, trusting that You give grace sufficient for the obedience to Your every command.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.