Our God is a jealous God, but it is not the type of jealousy you may be thinking. God’s jealousy is not born out of selfishness. No, this type of jealousy is out of an exuberant love for His creation, His people, His children – you and me. El Qanna is the Hebrew word for jealous God. Our jealous God desires our praise to be for Him, and Him alone. El Qanna is about the marriage relationship between Yahweh and us. This jealousy is about a passionate love that says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). The Bible is God’s love story to us. This passionate love that God talks about is so deep that we cannot fathom it with our human minds. This passionate love drew Him to give up His precious, one and only Son, Jesus Christ to die for you and me. To bear the stripes and punishment of our sins that we deserved, but Jesus took. Why? Because God loves with everlasting love, so profoundly that He found a way to bring us back closer to Him through Jesus Christ.

Why is God a jealous God you ask? He is so impassioned and so intensely desires people to return to the source of life and to be saved from the darkness, from the pit of hell. To restore His original plan – the relationship with you He longs for and the relationship your spirit desires to be with.

Who do you say your lord is? What are you allowing to rule over your life? Is it the love of money? The delicacies of drugs or the enticement of alcohol? Perhaps, the seduction of porn? What about the famous twins, depression and anxiety, are they living rent-free in your life? Is that your lord? Is your work or ministry your god? Maybe it’s social media? Are you obsessed with how many likes or followers you have today? Are you spending more time scrolling on that, than on God’s Word? Who or what is your god? Who resides in your heart? Are you serving a false god? You call on God every day, but have made Him Lord over your life?

Exodus 34:14 says, “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” God even calls His name – Jealous. You shall not have any other gods. To call Him Lord gives Him a title, but to make Him Lord promotes Him to the ruler of life. Who is your Lord? Yahweh wants you to lay it all down at His feet – the addictions, the mental health issues, the cravings, whatever they may be – lay it all down and draw closer to Him. The God whose name is Jealous, because of His deep desire to have an intimate relationship with you, He only wants you.

King Solomon loved God, but he also welcomed and worshipped other false gods. God warned him not to have other gods before Him, but King Solomon would not listen. God turned His back and lifted His hands off of King Solomon because he was not willing to give up the other gods and worship only the One true God. King Solomon lost everything because God was no longer with him. Do not die proud and self-righteous as King Solomon did because he refused to give up the other gods in his life. Who is lording over your life? To whom are you giving your worship? God says that if we give any of our worship to another, and we do not repent, He will break forth in wrath. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24). Turn away from your false gods that only lead to destruction. Repent and acknowledge your deepest human need for the One true God, who is worthy to be praised. To grow in that longing and that dependence solely on Him.

What’s vying for your time throughout your day? Are you putting God in a box? I remember listening to one of John Bevere’s messages. He was asking God why Lisa, his wife, would seem to hear from the Holy Spirit more often than he did. John said he would wake up at 5 am, sometimes 4 am to spend time with God. He would get up, go outside in his quiet place, spend time reading the Bible, praying, and talking with the Lord for two or two and a half hours every single morning, and then go about his day. Lisa on the other hand, slept in and when she got up, she got her coffee, read her devotionals, spent maybe half an hour in the morning, then prayed here and there, and yet she heard from the Holy Spirit all the time. He said, God answered him and said, "You give me two hours out of the twenty-four hours of your day, you tuck me away, go about your day, until you speak to me again the next morning. Lisa, well, Lisa gives me her entire day. I am in her thoughts when she first awakens and on her lips all day long. She does not put me in a box when she’s done, like you do. She talks, prays, and includes Me throughout her day. She even asks Me for My opinion on her decisions. She is with Me twenty-four hours of her day.”

Isn’t God worthy of our praise? God is so worthy of our time and praise. Not only the first fruits of our day but in everything we do and say all day long. Luke 4:8 reminds us, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” Nicky Gumbel says, “Ultimately, there is only one thing that can be secure and that is your relationship with God. This must be your primary ambition.”

You may proclaim that Jesus Christ is your Savior, but is He Lord over all areas of your life?