One of the more popular songs in recent months has been "How He Loves." It's a moving song about the love relationship between God and man. The opening line of the song begins by saying, "He is jealous for me." What a beautiful statement. We often take God for granted and put him in the back seat of our lives, but he isn't willing to be a sideshow attraction in this grand circus. He loves us, and he is jealous for us.
One of Webster's definitions for jealous is, "Vigilant of guarding a possession," and also as, "Hostile toward a rival." God will not be competed against. He created us, he cares for us, and he desires us to worship him.
John Piper often talks about this subject of God as jealous. One of the names of God in the Bible is El Kanna, the Jealous God (first mentioned in Exodus 20:5). This name is a reference to a marriage relationship. God is depicted as Israel's husband. He is a jealous God, wanting all our praise for Himself and no one else. He is the supreme being with no one and nothing standing superior to him. He is self-exalting, seeing as to lift anything up higher than himself would be a sin. He is self-glorifying because there is nothing greater, and he asks us to worship him alone for the same reason. He is the only being in existence worthy of being jealous. It is logical that the supreme being would want to be acknowledged as such, that the creator would want recognition and obedience from his creation.
We so often rub up against this idea because we have trouble accepting the fact that there is a being greater than ourselves. Our pride won't allow it. Rather than dancing for joy and rejoicing at the very name of God we are the same stiff-necked, heard-hearted people that God has been redeeming throughout the entire Bible.
I pray for a change of thinking in this generation. That we would cease to raise ourselves up in equality with God. We are made in his image and that is a blessing, but we are not made equal with his greatness. We cannot compare to the Almighty One, El Shaddai. I pray that our knees remember how to bend, that we may still find our way to the floor in holy reverence of the Lord. I pray for broken hearts and contrite souls that come before the Lord in fear and awe praising and glorify the Most High God.
I pray so fervently that this generation would die to self and instead hold the Lord up in his rightful place as Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our Banner.
As a side note I thought I'd add in the Kim Walker cover of "How He Loves" for anyone who would like to hear it. It's probably my favorite version.
I am speaking the truth in Christ-- I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Romans 9:1-3
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:8-11
How numb we are to the slightest inkling of suffering. No, even more, we are opposed to it, against it, appalled by the thought of it; but what we see throughout the Bible is a call to suffering, a desire to suffer- because in that moment, just as Stephen was close enough to God to see Jesus on the throne, so we Christians are more in tune with God than ever before. It is because in suffering there is nowhere else for us to turn than in complete surrender to God.
So where is the holy suffering that the Bible speaks of, the beautiful suffering of the saints? We have become so apathetic and comfortable that we are unable to achieve the fullness of our purpose. That purpose which, in reality, we are only a part of because we are tools created to worship and glorify God. If we are not doing this in everything we are failing and must strive for more, and in truth we must always be striving for more because we are always falling short.
There is no easier time to glorify God than in suffering. It is the highest call we can have. Jesus didn't say we may suffer at times if we happen to live in a third world country but only then. He told us that if we are Christians, we will suffer! "If they persecute me [Jesus], they will also persecute you" John 15:20. So what aren't we doing?
We have lost the contrite and humble spirit (Isaiah 66:2). We no longer fear God. We no longer tremble at his words or speak his Holy name in reverence. With negligence we trample over his renown and ignore the creator's call. Who are we to do such things? We are the creation. If we can think about God without trembling in awe of him then we are an abhorred, prideful people. This is God! El Shaddai, the Almighty God. El Kanno, the Jealous and Self-Exalting God. El Hay, the Living God. Elsali, God my rock. Adonai, our Master and Lord. Jehovah!, The Self-Existing One.
There was a time when the people of God would not even dare to write his name without utmost reverence. A.W. Tozer puts things into perspective in his book "The Attributes of God." He says, "It was a common thing in other days, when God was the center of human worship, to kneel at an altar and shake, tremble, weep and perspire in an agony of conviction. They expected it in that day. We don't see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful God, 'mine Holy One,' who is 'of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.' ...If we came to God dirty, but trembling and shocked and awestruck in His presence, if we knelt at His feet and cried with Isaiah, 'I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips' (Isaiah 6:5), then I could understand. But we skip into His awful presence. We're dirty, but we have a book called Seven Steps to Salvation that gives us seven verses to get us out of our problems. And each year we have more Christians, more people going to church, more church buildings, more money--and less spirituality and less holiness. We're forgetting 'holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.'"
Once we gain back the fear of the Lord everything else will fade away. We will no longer worry about things, but rather concern ourselves with glorifying and following the will of God. We can come before him in humility and reverence anointing his name with our service, and yes I pray, suffering. Beautiful, holy suffering that anoints the feet of our Savior like sweet perfume- a fragrant life offering poured out to God, a physical sacrifice and spiritual act of worship in its fullest sense. In that moment, oh brothers and sisters, I cannot describe in completeness the love that we will experience, the joy, the peace, the mighty power and glory of God that we will witness.
As we glorify God we reach our purpose and we are completely satisfied in him. What more can a creation ask for than to humbly and completely serve its creator?
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:16-17