God being jealous

Interesting verse in Exodus 34:14.

Let me read it to you. "For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous."

It's not often when we think of the names of God that the name, Jealous leaps out at us. The "Alpha and the Omega" yes, the "way, the truth and the life," yes, "the Lord who heals," yes, but Jealous?

In what sense is God jealous? And for what?

God is jealous that we guard a relationship with Him.

Incredible thought. You might ask, "what does the great, omnipotent God care about me being distracted by some passing affection"?

Surely God has more important things to do. Like possible war with North Korea. The economy. Swine flu.

Yet, he desires a relationship with us to the extent that he will do everything in his power to make sure that we stay connected with Him.

That overwhelms me!

All he ask of us is that we (as it says in Jeremiah 29:13) "seek Him, search for Him with all of our heart."

David prays in Psalms 27:4, "One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple."

C.S. Lewis writes, "When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving toward the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased."

And then listen to the words of Mike Singletary (Chicago Bears Hall-of-Fame Middle Linebacker) when he writes: "The first thing in my life by far and the reason I do everything is my love for Jesus Christ. Number two is my family—being there for them and making sure I'm not missing time that I can't get back. Number three is my work, speaking to corporations about teamwork, leadership, and cultural diversity and trying to help people come together.

I don't care where I'm at or what I'm doing, the thing I want to do now in my life is make a difference and serve with a capital S. Serve in my home. Serve in my relationship with my wife. And serve my fellow man…. For me, it's a matter of "What am I doing to make a difference? What am I doing except making money." There are a lot of people out there who are hurting."

May we all love God with all that we are - and save Him being jealous....