Chronicles of a Tinman

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.