God is Jealous.

by C. H. Spurgeon

2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. Nahum 1:2 NIV

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself.   

He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend - worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself.

He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies.

Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!

Today's Bible Verse...
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.---2 Peter 1:21

Thoughts on Today's Verse... 
Where did Scripture come from? What is the basis of our faith in the Bible and the Gospel? Peter wants us to realize that the prophets of ancient times didn't bake up their own private recipes for their prophecies. Instead, they could only move and respond to what God was doing in them, not what they themselves wanted to do or say. They were human, but their message was God's word because the Holy Spirit moved them to speak and guided their words. This makes what we have in Scripture from the prophets more than precious: we are given the very words of God! (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

My Prayer... 
Almighty God, thank you for inspiring ordinary people to give us your extraordinary message in common, everyday language. Thank you for delivering that essential message to us in the Bible and preserving it through times of persecution, hardship, and opposition. Please use those same Scriptures to ignite a whole new revival in my heart and throughout our land. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
The Thoughts and Prayer on Today's Verse are written by Phil Ware.

Today's Verse Illustrated...

 

After a Troubled Ministry by Doug Hall