Deuteronomy 4:24- For The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
As I was studying God's word this week, this verse spoke to my heart. I began to ponder what this verse really means to me and how I can apply it to my own life.
At a first glance, many people may associate it with a negative connotation. I think that we have to read the verses before and also look at the context. I think as people we run into problems when we do not understand the context or the interpretation and we put our own human thinking on it and often not allow the holy spirit to reveal to us the true meaning behind it.
For me when I think of God as a jealous God, I see him as wanting all of me and not bits and pieces of whats left of me by the end of each day. I think about that there are so many things, activities, responsibilities, and relationships that take my time such as my children, family, boyfriend, friends,church,ministry, work, shopping, exercise, cooking, house chores, up keep of my house. The list can go on and on.
Then I began to ponder how my christian life could drastically be changed if I would give God more of me. The cares of this life along with our relationships and responsibilities can ware us down when we often have nothing left. I am not downplaying that at all because I have been there many times. I do think that our God has every right to be jealous for our devotion. Our relationship with him is the most important and needs to be nurtured by being in his word praying and being the hands and feet that help the church and people in need. We should need and want to spend time with him and do things for his kingdom. He is my Savior, the one who has given me life and blessed me with so much in this world being my eternal provider from everything on this earth to what my future in eternity will be. I trust God the most and so I feel this way for him.
Lastly, I do not think our human mind can completely understand or compare God's jealousy to human jealousy. We are human and all have sin. God's jealousy is not filled with possessiveness and distrust. There is not a ounce of animosity, outrage or retaliation in God. All he is asking for is to spend time with us. He is a personal God who wants to know us more. Watch and see how he can change your life when you give more of yourself to him. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
God's Unconditional Love
Did you ever question: Can I be loved after I have done something so horrible to someone? Or will this person ever forgive me for what has happened? Can my relationship ever be the same with this person because of what has happened? I have hurt this person so many times. Will they forgive me? Sometimes people cannot love us the way they did before or forgive us and move on from something that has happened. Things have happened and as a result the relationship has been severed and is changed forever. We cannot control how people will react to us once they have been hurt. We can only control how we act towards them.
I want to reassure you that we have a relationship with not only a just God but a compassionate loving God that never changes. Hebrews 13:8 says: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The relationship with our heavenly father can be quite different from any human relationship.
God has taught me much about his unconditional love for me this past year. I do not think I was able to fully grasp the love he has for me until now. For myself, in the past I would base his love for me on what I did or how I would respond to him. I have always known I was his child, but I would start to question his love for me when I would mess up or sin.
He began to teach me that his love is unconditional and not conditional and based on anything that I could do for him, but what he has done for me. I had to be reminded of this verse from Ephesians 2:4-5 -“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)This means God shows us mercy even when we have failed him. Mercy is defined as being compassionate toward an offender. He wants us to come to him humbly when we have failed and confess to him. His word says when we confess our sins to him he is faithful to forgive us every time.
Here are some verses to think about and remember. Romans 8:38-39- “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. This is God’s promise to his people that NOTHING can separate the love that God has for you. Once you are his child you are his child. He will not leave you or forsake you. Even in light of what may be your darkest hour of your life when you are at your end or feel so low and want to think that he cannot love you in the state you are in, he does and he will.
When I sit back and think about the way God loves me, I just cannot wrap my brain around the thought. Humanly speaking I do not think we will ever be able to grasp the kind of love he has for us. Some people have a real hard time with understanding how we can know God in such a personal way because his ways are not ours and because he is the Creator of the universe. His desire is for us to get to know him, love him in a personal relationship as we have with our own family and friends. If you love someone you get to know them. His love propels me to read his word,talk to him through prayer, and showing others the same kind of love as he has shown me.
Here are some of my favorite verses from Psalm 139 that speak of this love that I cannot fathom at times. Psalm 139:13-18
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me
Lastly, remember we are his adopted children who were chosen before the foundation of this world to be set apart and blameless in his eyes. (Ephesians 1:4)
I want to reassure you that we have a relationship with not only a just God but a compassionate loving God that never changes. Hebrews 13:8 says: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The relationship with our heavenly father can be quite different from any human relationship.
God has taught me much about his unconditional love for me this past year. I do not think I was able to fully grasp the love he has for me until now. For myself, in the past I would base his love for me on what I did or how I would respond to him. I have always known I was his child, but I would start to question his love for me when I would mess up or sin.
He began to teach me that his love is unconditional and not conditional and based on anything that I could do for him, but what he has done for me. I had to be reminded of this verse from Ephesians 2:4-5 -“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)This means God shows us mercy even when we have failed him. Mercy is defined as being compassionate toward an offender. He wants us to come to him humbly when we have failed and confess to him. His word says when we confess our sins to him he is faithful to forgive us every time.
Here are some verses to think about and remember. Romans 8:38-39- “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. This is God’s promise to his people that NOTHING can separate the love that God has for you. Once you are his child you are his child. He will not leave you or forsake you. Even in light of what may be your darkest hour of your life when you are at your end or feel so low and want to think that he cannot love you in the state you are in, he does and he will.
When I sit back and think about the way God loves me, I just cannot wrap my brain around the thought. Humanly speaking I do not think we will ever be able to grasp the kind of love he has for us. Some people have a real hard time with understanding how we can know God in such a personal way because his ways are not ours and because he is the Creator of the universe. His desire is for us to get to know him, love him in a personal relationship as we have with our own family and friends. If you love someone you get to know them. His love propels me to read his word,talk to him through prayer, and showing others the same kind of love as he has shown me.
Here are some of my favorite verses from Psalm 139 that speak of this love that I cannot fathom at times. Psalm 139:13-18
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me
Lastly, remember we are his adopted children who were chosen before the foundation of this world to be set apart and blameless in his eyes. (Ephesians 1:4)
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