Our God is a Jealous God
I've always wrestled with the idea of the LORD being jealous - wasn't being jealous a bad thing? Why is God jealous? But recently, as i've been in scripture and have been exploring the importance of prayer - I rejoice that God has shed some light on this subject for me.
The Christian faith focuses on the relationship one has with our Creator God. In the beginning, He was perfect, in unity with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - and He didn't need us humans because He was self-sufficient, but He decided to create us so that He could love us. God creates as a manifestation and expression of his love.
With the first man, Adam, God had already begun to build a relationship with him as He does with each and everyone of us. We see that with how God speaks to Adam, and how God walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden. God made us in the womb, He knows the numbers of hairs on our head, and He knows our hearts. He desires to have a relationship with us. But that relationship broke, because of sin; yet even though we are broken and wicked at heart, we know that the LORD continues to love us because He gives. We see that in his sovereign provision, the sustaining of our lives but most importantly, through the ultimate atoning sacrifice that was His Son, Jesus Christ - whom through we could be reconciled to God because of our sinful nature for those who believe and follow Him.
When we have Christ in our hearts - scripture tells us that "God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be a sin offering for us, so that we in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). And because we are made righteous through Christ, we can approach God freely because He now sees Christ when He looks at us. We can come to God in prayer, one of the main means by which we communicate and build our relationship with God.
I'm sure we all know by now that in any relationship, we see that communication is incredibly important, and that relationships are a two-way street. With any friend, family member, even acquaintance, you talk with them, you grow with them, and you bond with them. But have you ever had a bad experience in a relationship? I know I have. I've had many friendships in the past where i've gotten no response even though I had invested and poured much into it. I just wanted them to talk to me, to reciprocate - and isn't it just frustrating when they don't? I should've just given up on them right?
It's the same with God, but not really. He loves us so dearly, He shows such compassion and mercy towards us, He lavishes us with His grace and provision, He sends His only son to die for you and me so that we could even have this relationship with Him considering our sinfulness and His holiness. But unlike us, He promises to remain faithful even when we are faithless (2 Timothy 2:13). And how have many of us responded to this grace? Many of us don't spend time talking to God in prayer, we don't even try to get to know Him by reading His Word. We should be asking ourselves, how much are we investing into our relationship with God considering how much He has invested into us?
My experience with those poor relationships has helped me recognize how God feels towards many of us (myself included!). I can hear Him saying "I just want you to talk to me, tell me what's happening!" No wonder our God is a Jealous God and rightfully so, because He gives and gives and gives (all things are graces from God) and yet we are always blocking him out, ignoring him, turning our hearts and our full attention to other things, things of this world - school, materials, the glitz and glam etc... But God wants our hearts. Will you give it to Him?
Now don't get me wrong, it's good to focus on certain things like school, or work; these are good things! But it becomes a problem when it bumps God out of that number 1 position in our hearts. "You shall have no other gods before me" says Exodus 20:3.
Another thing I want to make clear is that, yes, although we should be turning our hearts back to God and building that relationship with Him, at the end of the day, it shouldn't be because we have to, it shouldn't be done out of guilt, it is not a chore or a burden to know God - rather it should be a genuine desire and joy to seek Him in scripture and to converse with Him in prayer. I for one struggle with finding that genuine delight in knowing/seeking God, and it's a problem of the heart; but as we act in obedience - we must trust that the LORD will cultivate a joy and delight in knowing Him more and more. And I think i've been seeing that, just seeing how God has revealed Himself to me these past few weeks have been producing a real found joy that is rooted in God and not the things of this world.
So let us spend some time honestly asking ourselves, how is our relationship with God going?
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