In the heavenly embrace of Jesus I have found peace, joy and serenity. In His heavenly embrace I am safe for I know that God will provide for me, that He will continue to teach me and guide me and that His love will continue to transform me.

I fell in love with Jesus not in the cave of the nativity, but on the Way to Calvary. It was at the foot of the Cross that I discovered His great love for me and it was there that I discovered my passion for Him.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Let’s pause today to take a few moments to reflect on the New Covenant God made with us, His people. This New Covenant, a set of eternal promises made by God, were first spoken of in the Old Testament. The Old Covenant, the Law given by God to Moses had been broken by sin and God promised to create a New Covenant signed in His Sacred Blood.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them, ” declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34

God wrote His Law on tablets of stone and told Moses that He would bless those that would obey Him and curse those that would disobey. We all know what happened. God’s Law was broken and God was forced to punish His people. The merciful Lord was not satisfied with that outcome for fidelity was essential to entering into the heavenly embrace and the sanctity of God. So God willed that His Law originally written on tablets of stone would be inscribed on the hearts and minds of His people and He accomplished this on the Cross.

Come then for a few moments and stand with me at the foot of the Cross to understand how God accomplishes His goal of writing His Law of Love on our hearts.

Look at Him!

Look at Our Saviour Jesus nailed to the Cross. His beauty, His greatness, the depth of His love is more apparent now under the veil of physical disfigurement than it was in the cave of the nativity. Jesus endured brutal torture for one reason, and one reason alone, to save us and to establish a New Covenant with humanity with a set of eternal promises.

“His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the sons of men—so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of Him…” Isaiah 52: 14-15

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from who men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” Isaiah 53:2-4

Unlike men and women who break their promises, God does not break His. When we contemplate the Passion of Christ we will begin to understand the depth of God’s love for us. God’s promise of redemption is fulfilled when we repent of our sins.

The love of God is consummated on the Cross. He has given all for His bride, His people. The New Covenant is a promise of redemption and sanctification. Jesus promises to save us by forgiving us and to bless us by giving us His Spirit and His Body and Blood. We in turn have some responsibilities to fulfill. The New Covenant has mutual responsibilities. God will fulfill His promise to save us and bless us and to live in us to fulfill the plans He has for us, and we in turn must believe. We must have faith and we must trust in Him and live not in the flesh but in the Spirit, listening attentively to His call, allowing Him to help us to do the work He has appointed for us to do.

Enter then into the heavenly embrace of Our Lord Jesus and give Him all!

Give Jesus the full confidence He deserves. Jesus has given all for us! Will we ration that which we give to Him? Will we give Him certain hours of the week that we will dedicate to Him, or will we give Him our lives and allow Him to dwell in us and walk with us and speak through us and work through us daily?

The New Covenant is a pledge of God’s faithful promise to redeem us and bless us and do all through us, IF we consent to His will. The Holy Spirit will not force itself upon us. The Holy Spirit does not scream and shout orders, the Spirit of God whispers and is discerned only in the quiet intimacy of our hearts.

It is God’s will that we draw closer to Him. Let’s repent of our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. Let’s invite Him into our hearts and allow Him to pour His grace into our hearts through the power of His Holy Spirit and the power of His Body and Blood that we receive in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Let’s ask God to heal us of any disbelief we may have. Let’s have full confidence in our Omnipotent and all loving and merciful Lord Jesus.

If we fail to trust in God’s providence and love, we will deny ourselves of the peace and joy that comes from total confidence in God’s love. In the book of the Prophet Jeremiah God speaks of the New Covenant He will establish through the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus.

God says, “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.” Jeremiah 32:40

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” Hebrews 9:15

At the foot of the Cross Jesus will ignite a desire in you to love Him and honour Him and be His in every moment. Allow God to fulfill His promises to you. Consent to His holy will and invite Him into your heart.

May every beat of my heart Lord proclaim my love for You! You are my heart’s desire and I want to give You all that I am! I love You so much Jesus!

Please honour Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by stopping every day to pray at the time Jesus died for us 3pm (in your local time zone), if but for a few moments, to thank Him for His infinite sacrifice. Contemplate His Passion and pray for His mercy upon all and you will discover how much Jesus loves you! Learn more here.