God To You (Genesis 17:7)

 


Friday, January 31, 2025


Psalm 59

Genesis 17

Luke 1:57-66


God To You (Genesis 17:7)


God’s covenant promise is a wonderful thing. The promise of a homeland is something many people the world over throughout history have yearned for. And the promise of descendants is a universal yearning too. But one part of this promise stuck out and has stuck with God’s people ever since: that God would be our God.


Abram (now Abraham) is obsessed over the promise of children. He is so desperate that he asks if God can fulfil the promise through Ishmael; God replies that Sarai (now Sarah) is to be the mother of kings. Abraham doesn’t even bring up the issue of land rights, as he probably thinks that is in the bag, as he has already proved to himself he knows how to win a war. But for the rest of the Old Testament, and throughout the New all the way to Revelation, the promise that God would be our God is what has stuck out as the most wonderful part of this covenant promise.


Surely this is our deepest yearning. The whole writhing, suffering mass of humanity is lost adrift, having scorned our Creator and trying to make a name for ourselves. But deep down we all yearn for God to be our God. Not some nameless, clueless deity up in the sky, but someone we can actually talk to, and be comforted by; someone to laugh with and enjoy life with. Satan must have his head crushed, and we must be restored to that perfect and loving relationship with God that we once had but lost.


St Augustine famously prayed “you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The God of the covenant, made to Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, and fulfilled in Jesus, is the God who tells us we can call him our God. Nothing is more important for our souls; nothing is more valuable.


What do you want right now? When was the last time you really thought about how amazing it is you can call God your God?


My Lord and my God: bind myself to you; still my restless heart; and give me the fullness of your love.

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