Nahum 1:2--"The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies."
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!
I read the September 12th 'Morning and Evening' devotional (by Spurgeon) on Tuesday and it just pierced me to the heart. This subject of spending time alone with God is one that He keeps bringing me back around to. And not being distracted by things that don't matter. He's like, "Okay, you didn't quite get it last time. Let's try this again."
This is essential to being a Christian and that's probably why it's such a hard thing to learn. Also, I'm lazy. I enjoy my own company. I could spend a whole day alone and be quite content. But, what joys am I missing out on? My precious Redeemer is with me always and I can speak with Him about anything, everything.
To read this verse alone, it sounds rather unpleasant. But it's important to notice that the Lord is avenging and wrathful toward his enemies. If we belong to Him, that statement should be one of the most comforting in the Bible. If someone is jealous of you, you know it's because they love you.
The Creator and Savior of our souls loves us and desires that we love Him with All our heart, soul, mind and strength.
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