Relationship is how God chooses to posture himself towards us, Jesus made it possible for us to have a personal relationship with God. Relationships really matter to God. The relationships in our lives will have changed in so many ways over the pandemic – kids at home, more time with a spouse, living alone, limitations on seeing friends, dating, not dating, video calls, emails. How can we take the words of Jesus seriously here, that how we think and speak of one another is so important to God, our thoughts and words over others are not only shaping our relationships, they’re shaping us too! How might God be restoring a vision for Godly relationships amongst us?

Our mental health is important to God. God cares about our thought patterns, the things we tell ourselves about ourselves. He cares about how we view others, he cares about the things that keep us up at night and moments where anxiety takes over any clarity of thinking. What might it look like to live trusting that that is true? How might it shape our thinking to really believe that everything matters to God? He invites us to present all our thoughts before him with thankful hearts, as we acknowledge that God cares about each one. But more than that, He offers us something in return. Holy Spirit offers us peace that transcends our understanding - peace which can get past our thinking brains, which covers us and guards us in Jesus. What might it look like to take time to allow God to give us that peace?

Our bodies really matter to God; he made them perfectly. What we put into our body matters to God, how we care for our body matters to God, what we do with our body matters to God. What does it mean today to glorify God in our bodies? How can we love and care for our bodies well as an expression of worship to God?

What does it mean for us to work with all our hearts, as if we are working for the Lord? Work has changed for many this past year, from furlough, to redundancy, to working from home, to retirement as well as the large portions of work that encompass family life. How might God be restoring a new purpose to us in our work, whatever it is that we do? How can we be rewired in our vision for serving and sharing Jesus in our ‘places’ of work?

We need a restored rhythm of rest – not just time off, not just a holiday; we need a restored vision for a rested life held in the rhythm that Jesus provides for us. As we move from inactivity to activity (or perhaps from activity to even more activity!) let’s allow God to speak into our lives first about what the rest that he invites us into could look like and why we have been given it.

What does it mean to live a full life? For some people, life is always full – too full! Full of schedules and deadlines and people and responsibilities. For others, this year has stripped more from us than we’d ever imagined. So, what does a full life in Jesus mean, how is God restoring fullness to us and how does that fullness differ from the ‘fullness’ that the world parades?

The plans God has for us don’t finish when we take our last breath here on earth, we have always been those with an eternal perspective. God’s Kingdom is now, but it is also not yet. We are living in the now and hoping and praying and rejoicing in the now but we must not forget what is to come as well. The not yet, the new creation is still coming. In these passages we read the incredible promises that await us when we are united finally with God, and we also see echoed here the very same promises that were given to Abraham generations ago. God has remained faithful to his people, as we’ve journeyed across this one big story we been confronted at every turn by the incredible grace of God. But, there is a warning too, it’s for those who choose to place their trust in Jesus. That is the clincher – we need to choose to place our trust in him, to rest our souls in him alone. For those who follow Jesus, our call is to live like those who will enter eternal life, to live with an eternal perspective and for those who have yet to make that decision, the welcome is to come home to Jesus today. ‘…that whoever believes in him, will not die but will have eternal life’.

The Church is one of the most beautiful things ever created. The Church is God’s plan A for seeing His Kingdom established on earth. The Church is the body of Christ. And yet, the Church is hard, and broken and messy. However, it has not stopped being the Hope of the World. So how do we as God’s bride, as the body of Christ live more truly and fully into being that hope? It begins with living into the promise of relationship with Jesus and it continues with us living out the responsibility we are called to and it hinges on our commitment to one another, our commitment to unity across borders, disagreements and divisions.

The death and resurrection of Jesus means that the distance that once lay between God and humanity is finally bridged. We read in Matthew’s account how the curtain was torn in two, symbolising that the access that had once been reserved for only the high priest was now open to all – because of Jesus we can do what we never could do before, we can boldly approach God. This restoration of intimate relationship was what Jesus came to redeem for us. At the end of Matthew’s gospel we read the charge that Jesus gave his disciples and consequently to us as well. We are not just able to live in beautiful communion with God; we are called to participate in the establishment of his Kingdom here on earth! We have a responsibility as followers of Jesus and our lives are now caught up with his. All of the stories we’ve read throughout this series have been leading to this moment, the new covenant of God’s grace is here.

Every story of God’s faithfulness and commitment to his people had been leading up to this moment – when God stepped into his humanity. This was the only way; the people had tried and failed to remain faithful to God, the law had tried and failed to make people right before God, the relationship was fractured. In both the prophecy from Isaiah and the opening of John’s gospel, we see the hope that finally arrives through the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. Throughout the generations, God had kept his promises to his people even when they had broken them and here in Jesus we see the greatest promise, given and kept once and for all. In the big story of God’s rescue plan for humanity, this is the seminal moment. The incarnation of Jesus was about to change everything; the relationship we were made for would be made possible forever through him, the responsibility we are called into is opened up again through him.