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World Changing Words Devotional-Day 20

by David Joynt on August 21, 2020


JEREMIAH 31:33 | 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

 Another positive mark of the hoped-for new covenant was a shift from the external to the internal. There are rules I must obey out of fear of consequences or out of the calculation of self-interest. I must obey, for instance, the speed laws because fines are heavy for exceeding them and I don’t want to drive in a world where everyone speeds and crashes are catastrophic.

 Then there are rules I obey because I value them as true and good, beyond expediency. Jeremiah envisioned what Jesus gave through the gift of His Spirit, a capacity to be guided from within out of love for God and others, rather than fear of punishment.

 If you are a parent, how does this devotion impact your parenting goals and the way you discipline your children?

 Are you guided internally?

 

Tags: guided, internally

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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