On most Wednesday mornings I drag myself out of bed a little earlier than usual so I can meet with two or three other guys from church.\u00a0 We sip coffee, discuss a book we are reading, talk about our lives, and pray for each other.\u00a0 The other day, we started talking about jealousy.\u00a0 If jealousy is a bad thing, then why does the bible say God is a jealous God?<\/p>\n
I remember when I was in college, dating my wife.\u00a0 We hadn’t been together very long, and she had a guy back home that wouldn’t give up.\u00a0 Even while I was dating her, he would send her flowers.\u00a0 I think he even asked her to marry him.\u00a0 It made me jealous.\u00a0\u00a0Who did\u00a0he think he was, trying to steal my girl?\u00a0\u00a0She’s MINE!\u00a0 A few months later, she went home for the summer.\u00a0\u00a0 The guy had given up.\u00a0 I was glad.\u00a0\u00a0 Even so,\u00a0Tammy called one day to ask if I cared that she go out with a guy she was friends with.\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn’t a\u00a0“date.”\u00a0\u00a0 Just two friends going\u00a0to hang out together.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I told her . . . Yes . . . I mind.\u00a0\u00a0 She didn’t go.\u00a0 I was glad.\u00a0\u00a0 And still\u00a0jealous.<\/p>\n
So what does it mean when God is jealous?\u00a0 I think it means something different than when we are.\u00a0 I was jealous for some of the right reasons and perhaps a few wrong ones.\u00a0 I loved Tammy.\u00a0 I didn’t want to lose her.\u00a0 I didn’t want anyone else to have her.\u00a0 I wanted what was best for her, but I also wanted to hang on to what I thought was best for me.\u00a0 I was jealous because I didn’t want her to give to someone else the\u00a0attention that I thought belonged to me.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t want to lose what was MINE.\u00a0\u00a0 I cared for myself, and my “possession.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My jealousy has a since of selfishness in it.\u00a0 My jealousy has me claiming as mine, another person.\u00a0 Tammy is not mine.\u00a0 She belongs to God.<\/p>\n
God is jealous for all the right reasons.\u00a0 He is jealous when other things pull us away from Him. He is jealous when we put other things above Him, not because He has some sort of ego, but because He loves us and wants what is best for us.\u00a0 He loves us so dearly that He jealously looks after us. \u00a0When evil would try to stake a claim on us, He scoops us to Himself, jealously\u00a0guarding His prized possession.\u00a0\u00a0When Satan sends his evil\u00a0on the\u00a0attack,\u00a0my\u00a0Lord whose name is Jealous sweeps his arms around me and declares “MINE!”\u00a0 \u00a0He is jealous because we really are<\/em> His.\u00a0 And because what is best for us, is Him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n .\u00a0 .\u00a0 . for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God . . .\u00a0 <\/em> Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On most Wednesday mornings I drag myself out of bed a little earlier than usual so I can meet with two or three other guys from church.\u00a0 We sip coffee, discuss a book we are reading, talk about our lives, and pray for each other.\u00a0 The other day, we started talking about jealousy.\u00a0 If jealousy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Exodus 34:14<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0– James 4:5<\/em><\/p>\n