Thirsty Thursday - Our Jealous God

yeah, i threw out the thrify thing. couldn't find anything too terribly interesting that i wanted to share for even one post, so i thought, "how am i going to find something every week on this subject?" while i do think that learning to be wise stewards of the money we are entrusted with is a highly important skill, it's not something that i have a passion for, nor can i find anything out there that seems new and fresh, that i think might actually help you.. things you haven't heard a million times already...

SO - i would rather write about something that will quench our thirst for The Lord. i think it's more down my alley. Plus, it will keep me in the word. So, here's to the first ever...

thirsty thursday

Do you know that we serve a jealous God? Jealousy has a bad connotation, so it seems strange to attribute it to God, but His word plainly says that He is jealous - right there smack-dab in the middle of the ten commandments (exodus 20:5) -- He calls Himself "jealous." And again in Exodus 34:14, it says that His NAME is jealous!

It makes me think about husbands and wives. We truly are like wayward wives when it comes to our relationship with The Lord, with our straying affections for other things and people. The Lord wants US - not what we can give to Him or do for Him... He wants our hearts... our affections... our love... our attention... our admiration. That is what it means that He is jealous for us. He doesn't want us to be divided, giving only part of ourselves to Him, and other pieces of ourselves to all the other little loves (little gods) in our lives.

We are His. This is what makes his jealousy right. It is not envy for what is not His, but a passion to protect what is already His, and what is precious to Him. The Lord is mine, and I am His!! His banner over me is love!!!!!

Jealousy carries emotion with it. We might not think of God as an emotional being, but if He is jealous for us, doesn't it seem that He could actually be hurt by our rejection of Him, or our forgetfulness to be mindful of Him? You know, I think that it is more about sensibility than emotion. It is sensible that you would be jealous for the One you know and love. It makes no sense to be able to lose them with ease. If you find yourself losing them, you are torn apart. Jealousy is the appropriate expression of His love for us, and His love for what is right (shows His holiness).

He knows us, and He wants to be known by us. He opens Himself up to us the way people often refuse to do. We build walls with each other and with Him, but He tears them down for the sake of intimacy. This is why He is jealous. Psalm 139 beautifully describes the way He knew us before we were ever even born. John 15:15 states that He no longer calls us servants, but friends.

Abraham Kuyper writes, "There is here no neutral ground. It is always a being busy in your heart with something, a giving of your heart to something, an allowing to enter into your spirit of something that does not extend itself after what is God, but what is God's creaturely competitor, and what, therefore, in the holy domain of love and affection is God's enemy and opponent."

Do you know that He is worthy of all of our love and affection? Our own husbands or children might not always seem worthy of our faithfulness, and yet we continue to offer it to them because of our love for them, don't we? How much more should we offer our fidelity and enduring affection to the One who is worthy all the time!?

I am the LORD, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images (Isaiah 42:8).

Today He wants your heart, soul, mind, and strength. ALL of it.