How He Loves..

We have all heard the term before, that our God is a jealous God.  That He accepts no other god in our lives but Himself. But when was the last time that we really took a look at what that word really means.  I pulled the following from dictionary.com and from Strong's concordance:


Jealous(jeal·ous), adjective: intolerant of unfaithfulness or rivalry

Jealous, קַנָּא (qanna', pronounced kan·nä'), used ONLY of God: used of God as not bearing any rival; the severe avenger of departure from Himself. (cf Ex 20:5, Deut 4:24, 5:29, 6:15)

Deuteronomy 4:24 - For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

The song "How He Loves" has been repeating over and over in my head today, and it opens with these words: "He is jealous for me." Do we even realize how deep and amazing that thought is, that the God of the universe, that created the heavens and the earth, is jealous for me and for you?

When I think about jealousy, I think about being envious of something that someone else has that I do not. That someone else is getting the affection that I desire.  That someone else is getting the attention that I am not.  Does that sound familiar to you?  God created us in His image (cf Genesis 1:26) and that goes down to our core.  I never thought to realize that the things that I become jealous over are not Biblical, but the fact that I am jealous at all is reflecting the image of God.  Unfortunately in my own sinful nature I do not bring glory to God when I act this way (although I'm sure I have/might once, maybe).

So my challenge this week is to remember jealousy, to remember that God is jealous for EVERY aspect of who I am, anything that makes me even slightly look away from Him.  God desires my heart, wants to own every aspect of my life, and more importantly wants to shine His glory out of my life and make Him famous.

Psalm 18:3a I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised

Worthy to be praised, the only thing in the world and out of this world that is WORTHY to be praised.  Will my little decisions this week bring praise to God, or glory to myself...

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