He is Jealous for You

“Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Exodus 34:14

For these past couple of weeks, God has really begun to press in on the idea of His jealousy for me…..for all His children. God refers to himself by the name “Jealous,” or el Qanna in Hebrew, six times in the Old Testament. It means “a zeal that arises when something threatens a relationship.” Again, he didn’t just use this as an adjective to describe himself, He NAMED Himself this. This really messed with me. He doesn’t just want our affection and our time, He craves it, to the point that it FIRES Him up when something else gets in the way of it. He desires us. He wants us. He grieves when anything else…sin, another relationship, our job, ANYTHING else pulls us away from Him. He wants our undivided attention. He doesn’t want our leftovers. He wants to fulfill every longing, every broken place in our heart, every desire we have. I think the enemy tries to invade this place of intimacy constantly, especially in the lives of those who are serving God with their whole hearts. We become so busy trying to “do” for God that we forget that more than anything, He wants our hearts. He wants to know us. Read this passage in Luke 10:38-42.

^“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

So much of the time, aren’t we like Martha? We run around, stressed, anxious, even distracted, trying to make things happen by our own ability. But Mary understood the “one thing” that was needed: TIME at His feet. She wasn’t worried or upset, because she knew Her King. She knew Him because she “listened to what He said” and spent time with Him. True love, great relationships, cost time and commitment. It takes time to know Him. Let’s give Him time to love on us and pour into us, so that we can POUR OUT His love to others. You can’t get water from a dry well. Let’s not allow ourselves to run dry, but let the God who desires to do “immeasurably more than we could ever hope or imagine” fill us with Himself!

I am so thankful for El Qanna, my God, who is jealous for me. Be blessed by Him today!!