Re: POWER of PRAYER- No Matter Which Faith You Follow=GOD is With You
Jesus Is the Covenant
Isaiah was speaking of Jesus when he prophesied these words: "Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages" (Isaiah 49:8, ESV).
The prophet declares that God is about to send his Son as the answer to every cry and prayer. However, there is more embedded in this verse. We are told that Jesus was sent in human form to reveal God's covenant with humanity.
When God gave us a new covenant, he did not establish a new system with a new set of rules. Instead, he sent us a person, Jesus, as the covenant.
The old covenant was a set of rules based on conditions. It stated, "If you do this or that, God will give you life. If you don't, you will miss God's blessing." Of course, the people constantly fell short of God's standard. They were unable to keep his law, which was holy and pure; and as a result, their lives were dogged by guilt, shame, and despair.
Somewhere along the way, we decided that God's old covenant needed to be tweaked. But Jesus didn't come to modify a covenant; he came as the covenant. He didn't come to show us the blessings of grace; he is the blessing of grace.
Throughout church history, men like Luther and Wesley have emphasized the importance of understanding the new covenant for God's people. They saw it as a matter of rightly dividing God's Word, grasping what is law and what is grace. If we fail to comprehend this one matter, they said, we are doomed to a lifetime of despair. Luther and Wesley knew this to be true because they had experienced that despair for themselves.
Under the new covenant, God's law was no longer an external standard to strive for. Instead, his law would be written on our hearts through the Holy Spirit. "Hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5).
Friend, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the very life of God himself, to help us obey his holy Word. Christ loved us and gave himself for us that we might have this newness of life.
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I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4
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