A Jealous God
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24
I call today’s devotional one of those “help-me-connect-the dots” devotionals. We too often have these “warm fuzzy feelings” towards God, and He wants us to love and enjoy Him – but we also need to be reminded of that He is also God – not just one of our pals and buds.
Dr. Henry Blackaby in his daily devotional, Experiencing God – The Devotional, reminds us that He is a jealous God:
Out God is a consuming fire. He is satisfied only when His love totally consumes us. We usually think of a jealous person as someone resentful and suspicious, but the Lord’s jealousy on our behalf is something that should be precious to us! He has the complete right to our lives. He gave us life, and He wants to protect us from ANYTHING that could harm us. That is why He commanded His children to worship no other gods, allowing NOTHING to distract us from His consuming love.
The Lord opposes ANYTHING that hinders our relationship with Him (Deuteronomy 6:15). He knows the danger of other gods, how they will lure us away, deceive us, and leave us empty. He will tolerate NOTHING that takes precedence over our love for Him! Our faithfulness to God assures us of the abundant life He wants to give us. IF WE REJECT HIM, HE WILL PURSUE US UNTIL WE RETURN TO HIM.
We should not resent the fact that God wants to guard our relationship with Him. It should bring us comfort. Our relationship with God should be our top priority. It should dictate how we spend our time, our money, our energy. If certain people or our possessions separate us from God, we must reexamine our hearts and give our devotion first to Him with ALL our heart, mind, soul and strength (Mark 12:30).
Our love for God should extend to EVERY corner of our lives. God loved us so much that He gave us His own Son. God loved us so much that He gave us His own Son. Let us respond by giving Him our highest devotion in return.
Is there an area of your life where you have not surrendered everything to Him? Think about it. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick
Compass Pointers: People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives. And when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted. – Nate Saint
Anchored to the Rock: To know how to speak to God is more important than knowing how to speak to men. Andrew Murray
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