Covenant of Mercy

“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, nether shall the covenant of my peace by removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (Isaiah 54:10)

Glory to God! God is not angry with us anymore! God’s anger is not reserved for us, his people, but rather for his enemies! (Nahum 1:2) “But you don’t know how I’ve messed things up!” you may say. Oh, that we could get a revelation of God’s eternal love for us, the breadth and length depth of it which passes all natural ability to comprehend!

You see, the devil goes to GREAT lengths to hide this truth from us! He puts all kinds of pressures on our flesh in order to cause us to “mess up.” Obviously, unrepentant sin causes a hindrance in our relationship with the Lord, but that is not what I am referring to here. I am referring to the things that we do that we hate; we try and try, but we still keep failing in some of these “weak” areas. It could be a quick temper, or something else, but after a while, and little by little, we can begin to separate ourselves from God. “God must be angry with me.” We think. “There’s no use trying; every time I try, I keep doing the same thing!”

Well, we’re not alone! The apostle Paul (who, by the way, had a quick temper) describes this war with the flesh quite well:

“For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but that which I hate, that do I.” (Romans 7:15)

The difference, however, between the apostle Paul and many of us is that Paul began to understand God’s mercy, and didn’t allow guilt and condemnation to stop him. He learned to believe and receive God’s love for himself and would get right back up and fight.

The apostle Peter, on the other hand, was very impulsive, and being a commercial fisherman he also knew how to cuss really well! Peter denied Jesus and then used some very colorful language in the process, and to compound all of this, the recipient of his verbal tirade was a woman! He could have repented on the spot, but instead he ran from Jesus; he went back to his fishing business and left the ministry. I can hear him saying, “That’s it!” “I’ve blown it! “The cock has crowed, the fat lady has sung, and Jesus is finished with me!”

Peter couldn’t comprehend the immeasurable and boundless love of God, and in his mind he had failed Jesus, and was finished. But thank God for his mercy! He had other plans for Peter, and he has other plans for us!

The devil knows that our flesh is weak and he applies pressure in order to get us to fail in certain areas. He does this in order to trick us into condemning ourselves and consequently withdraw from our heavenly Father, for this has been the natural response of man since the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve hid in the garden after they had sinned by eating of the fruit, which they were forbidden to eat. God’s voice echoed throughout eternity as he cried out in anguish of soul with the memories of walking with Adam in the cool of the garden, and the love between them still fresh in his heart. He cried for Adam as a man would cry for his own son… “Adam, where are you?” Knowing that the man whom he loved was still breathing, yet he was but a dead man. God was left alone in the garden, but yet he had a plan!

"You have done this Satan, but there is coming one, of the seed of this woman, that shall crush your head!" (Genesis 3:15) Praise God! He had the solution before the problem even existed!

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)