Your Lord is very jealous of your love,
O believer. Did he choose you? He cannot
bear that you should choose another.
—Charles Spurgeon
I love this quote from Spurgeon. One of my sons recently shared with our team how the Lord was speaking into this area of his life. He has all these goals, and they’re good goals that God wants him to accomplish. But my son was spending all of his free time trying to achieve these goals.
The Lord captured his attention and said, whatever you are pursuing in place of me is an idol in your life. My son was confused, because he knew God placed these goals in his heart. But when we take our all-sufficient God out of the equation, we’re choosing something else over Him. He is jealous for our time. He repeatedly declares of Himself:
“…I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” Exodus 20:5 ESV
…The Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous
about his relationship with you. Exodus 34:14 NLT
God, your God, is not to be trifled with—he’s a consuming fire,
a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24 The Message
There are numerous other scriptures referring to God’s jealousy. Bottom line, they all deal with our relationship with Him. He desires your success, He wants you to be great, He’s delighted for you to have abundance, and His will is for you to be productive (see Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 4:8 NLT; Matthew 25:29; and John 15:8). His jealousy solely refers to His desire to be close to you. He’s not willing to share you with another lover, which is chiefly the world.
Most often, we’re unaware of the gravity of our unfaithfulness. It takes truth to open our eyes. Had my son not been sensitive to God’s voice in his life, he would not have realized that pursuing God with full force is the only good path to achieving his goals.
Are you spending all of your energy and time pursuing something (or someone) other than God? Ask Him to unveil your eyes to what you have placed before Him. But don’t stop there. Step forward into a wild chase of God. You’ll be amazed at the tangible outcome.
