A Prayer of God's Peace, God's Work
This simple prayer reveals a lot about God and our relationship with Him.
Yes, blood is always a ghastly and a terrible thing. It is so, I suppose, because we recognize in it the destruction of life. Is it not so, also, - though we may not be able to define the emotion, - because we are compelled, in our consciences, to admit the effect of sin, and we are staggered as we see what our sin has done. All through the great school of the Jewish law, blood was constantly used to instruct the Israelite in the guilt of sin, and in the greatness of the atonement necessary for putting it away. Charles Spurgeon The Blood of the Testament
This is an "everlasting one"; it commenced from everlasting, as appears from the everlasting love of God, which is the rise and foundation of it; from the counsels of God of old, which issued in it; from Christ's being set up from everlasting, as the Mediator of it; from the promises of it which were made before the world began; and from the spiritual blessings of grace in it, which were given to God's elect in Christ before the foundation of it: moreover, it will endure for ever; nor will it be succeeded by any other covenant: and the blood of Christ may be called the blood of it, because the shedding of it is a principal article in it; by it the covenant is ratified and confirmed; and all the blessings of it come through it, as redemption, peace, pardon, justification, and even admission into heaven itself; and Christ, through it, was brought again from the dead, because by it he fulfilled his covenant engagements, satisfied divine justice, and abolished sin, yea, death itself. John Gill John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:
Why does the author offer this prayer?
How do we obtain God's peace?
How powerful is God?
Why was it necessary for the shedding of blood?
Why is God considered a covenantal God?
What heart aches have you experienced that drew you closer to God?
How may God be working in you through your difficulties to fit you perfectly together to do His will?
