"God is Jealous." Nahum 1:2; Exodus 34:14
Your Lord is very jealous of YOUR Love. Believer, did He choose you? Yes! And He cannot bear that you should choose another. [See 2 Thessalonians 2:13] Did He buy you with His own blood? Yes! And He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. [See Acts 20:28b] He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you! [See John 3:16] He would sooner die than you should perish! [See John 15:13] And He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself!
He is very jealous of your trust. …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. …To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find satisfaction in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the company of our fellow Christians over secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. …Many trials which He sends are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature (and the physical), and fixing them more closely upon Himself.
Let this jealousy - meant to keep us close to Christ, also comfort us, for if He loves us so much as to care 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 Christ alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!
Excerpts from Spurgeon, Charles Hadden; Morning and Evening, September 12
Morning Verse; Electronic text and markup copyright 1995 by Epiphany Software.
