Week 4 Keeping Promises

The idea of covenant-God's faithful promises to God's people-permeates the Bible. Christians see the life and death of Jesus as the fulfillment of the covenant God made with the Hebrew people in the Old Testament. The continued presence of the Holy Spirit with believers and with the Church means that covenant will continue for all time.

Children (and adults!) may struggle to understand that even though God's covenant with us is not conditional, God wants something back from us. God made covenant with us because God loves us, and God wants us to love him back. If we truly love God, we will act in certain ways, but Christianity is about being loving, not about being well-behaved. The first promise we make to God is to remember that God loves us, and to thank God for all the good things in our lives. This is Jesus' first commandment, to "love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

Loving is something we express with our whole selves. The actions of the prayer are a way to remember with our bodies who God is, what God is doing, and that God's blessings are for everyone.

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