Deuteronomy 4:23-24
I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul."
(JEREMIAH 32:41)
"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."
(DEUTERONOMY 4:24)
Our culture's emphasis on freedom and the right to privacy makes jealousy seem a purely evil notion. But fervent, passionate, single-minded love for a spouse creates a natural and godly jealousy. When his wife of many years left him, one man I knew put his fist through a microwave oven door! God loves His bride so intensely (with all His heart and soul!), that when her heart turns to other gods (idols), He is rightly angry and jealous.
But the intensity of that love also drives Him to pursue His bride, to win her back. God chose to illustrate that patient pursuit by asking the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute and to continue loving her faithfully in spite of her subsequent infidelities. God's intense, burning, faithful love for us is what sent Jesus into our world, through suffering and mockery, all the way to death on the cross for us, the unfaithful ones. He rose again, triumphant and vindicated, and now prays for us constantly. May our hearts burn with intense love for such a heavenly Husband!
INSIGHT
GIVE THANKS TO GOD FOR HIS INTENSE LOVE THAT HAS BROUGHT US INTO HIS FAMILY.
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Ezekiel 19-20
Psalm 140
Colossians 1-2
Deuteronomy 4:23-24
New International Version (NIV)
23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
A PRAYING LIFE [PART 2]
with Paul Miller
We know we need to pray. Yet sometimes we are reluctant to begin and delighted to finish. And distraction comes easily. This is a problem, but is there a fix?
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