The Assurance of Worship

A covenant relationship is based upon promises, which is received only by faith. Trust gives a covenant relationship the capacity to grow. In a covenant relationship, there is satisfaction in knowing someone and there is growth in that relationship. In a contract, the relationship is based upon the completion of duties, of work. As long as the work is completed on time and with satisfaction, the relationship remains. The main object in a contract is the project, not a person. God desires to enter into a covenant relationship with you, not a contract.

The covenant relationship God desires with you is within the covenant relationship the Father has with the Son. This was pictured and predicted in the Old Testament in Genesis 15 when God promised Abram that his offspring would outnumber the stars and He promised him the land of Israel to dwell in (15:5 – 7). At the time, Abram was in ninety-nine years old, was childless, and was an alien in the land, but he trusted that what God said, He would do. God was pleased with Abram because he trusted Him.

In that chapter, Abram asked for assurance, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it (the land)?” God told him to prepare sacrifices for the covenant. In Abram’s day, when two parties entered into a covenant relationship, sacrifices were cut in two pieces and the parties involved would walk through the middle of the sacrifices. This bound them together by saying, “May I be torn in two like this sacrifice, if I break this covenant.” Sounds gruesome to us, but we can be gruesome in our own ways in tearing apart personal relationships.

Abram obeyed God and prepared the sacrifices and then waited. While he waited, the Bible says that God showed him the future of his offspring and when they would possess the land. Then Abram watched as “…a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.” The cloud and fire of God entered into a covenant with Himself that day. Abram was included as a witness. His assurance would be found as he trusted what God revealed to him concerning Himself and His own faithfulness! What a worship service that must have been! It pleased God that day to include Abram in what He said He would do because Abram trusted God.

This episode in Abram’s life points forward to the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, when God made an eternal covenant with Himself and included you as a witness. As you see Christ on the cross giving His life for you, in order that you might have His, God was entering into a covenant with Himself for you and inviting you to watch. He would save you, if you were willing to trust that what He said, He would do. God makes His vow to Himself as you watch, just like Abram did. When you trust God, that He would make such a vow, and be faithful to Himself, you enter in to the relationship, His relationship and covenant with Himself, for you!

In your relationship with the Father, through faith in the Son, it is not your faithfulness that gives assurance, it is His! You are a witness at the cross, seeing and trusting that what God said, He did and will do. You are invited into the covenant relationship between the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son. As you see yourself in that relationship, God is pleased. This is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Today, meditate on the new covenant between the Father and the Son for you, and know that it is not about a performance or project, it is about a Person that you can trust.