Fifth Sunday in Lent

Certainty in God’s Promise

Jeremiah 31:31–34
John 12:20–33

by Janjay Innis

“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

Jeremiah 31:31

I remember the first surprise party I planned for a friend. She was going through a difficult transition, and I knew celebrating the day she entered the world was just what she needed to lift her spirit. To my delight, as her loved ones exclaimed “surprise” and burst into song, behind her joy, I noticed a quiet but strong sense of confidence that she’d be all right.

What strikes me most about the new covenant God promised the exiled Judeans in Babylonian captivity is the certainty of it. The people had suffered many losses and amid the unknown, the prophet brings a word about God inverting their trauma to restoration. Jesus reiterates the promise of that restoration when he proclaims in John 12:23 “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” That glorification would be his sacrifice of love on the cross, his resurrection, ascension, and the presence of the Holy Spirit with us always.

I rest in the comfort of knowing that in my most difficult times, the covenant-keeping God will surely surprise me through the fulfillment of God’s promise. My hope for us in the rough seasons of our lives is that we rest with the assurance that the days are surely coming when God’s covenant with us will be realized, and we will be fed with God’s goodness now and in difficult times to come.

Prayer: Covenant-keeping God, remind us when we are in deep water that your promise of rescue and restoration is true. Amen.

Janjay Innis is a consultant for United Women in Faith. She is a proud mom of an 11-month-old and is delighting in the joy of motherhood.

Photograph is from the 2024 Prayer Guide.