What’s In Your Heart?
God desires an intimate relationship with you.
“ You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. ” (Exodus 34:14).
A Relationship with God comes before any relationship with man! So for God to be jealous shows us and teaches us that He never intended for us to get caught up in man just because He sent them to us.
*We must watch very carefully who we are putting in front of God because if not– man will become our IDOL!
Yes, it is possible for us to provoke Him to jealousy: “Do we provoke the
Lord to jealousy?” (1 Corinthians 10:22). Paul is asking: “You have testified that you love Him. You’ve even taken His name. Yet, has someone or something else stolen your heart?”
You can say you love Jesus; you can go to church every time the doors are open. But do you seek Him when your time is your own?
*Preachers search their Bibles for sermons.
* Sunday school teachers study it for
lessons.
**But why do we not turn to it for recreational reading, to be refreshed
by our Lord?
**Why don’t we open the Bible to learn of Him, to love Him?
The Bible is Jesus—God’s own Word! It is the full revelation of His heart;
Everything about Him is unmasked in the Scripture. (2 Tim. 3:16).
John 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.
I would think that if we truly love
Him, if we expect to spend eternity as His bride, then we would want to learn
everything possible about Him!
Our Lord yearns after us, wanting our time and attention. Yet He sees us
spending all our time on other people and other things and that makes Him
jealous!
The day is coming when His jealousy will “burn” against those who
turn to vain idols (Deuteronomy 29:20). It will burst into flames of judgment!
** One of the worst things that can happen to us, as this account makes clear, is to become caught up in a popular movement.
*False forces arise out of it. That is the whole thrust of this section.
*Mis-emphases easily spring into being—and wrongful attitudes arise readily in a popular movement.
*Popularity, therefore, ought to be watched carefully. And when a movement is popular, as Christianity is popular in many places today, we must be careful that we are listening to the voice and the Spirit of God. The book of Jude covers this well. ( These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want. Jude 16).
Some qualifications and marks of the latter-day outpouring of the Spirit:
* A focus on the final harvest of souls.
* A spirit of grace leading to repentance and godliness.
* A spirit of supplication resulting in surrender and an urgency to pray in
the Spirit.
* A yearning for Jesus, and mourning, a brokenness and weeping with godly
sorrow for sin. Only after such dealings of the Spirit will the true blessing
of joy come!
**I will depend on Jesus, for everything!
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
*God created us for Himself but we sold ourselves into slavery to the devil.
*If we’re only loving in order to change the other person or the circumstances, our motivation is totally wrong. That’s conditional human love, and not God’s Love at all. If selfishness is motivating us, the fruit of our actions will be rotten.
* “Love…does not seek its own…”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
God is jealous for His glory. He cannot share it with false gods. He clearly promised blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking the covenant.
*Serving other gods was the most heinous offense against God and grounds for breaking the covenant. *Despite God sending prophets to warn the people of their transgressions, they always turned to idol worship until the exile of Judah.
** We ALL need to remove idols from our lives. What’s an idol?
Idol– whatever takes priority over our relationship with God.
** These idols may take the form of family, work, volunteering, recreation/sports, tv, cell phones, I-pad, gaming, and even ministry.
**If we don’t set our priorities straight, God will do it for us.
When the final day comes, I know we all want Jesus to take your hand and whisper, “At last we’re together! You have desired Me so. You have given Me the best of your life, your time, your attention. Come, now—let us be one!”
How will you stand before Him on that day? Everything of this world is going to
burn. But what about your intimacy with Him? Will you be able to stand before
Him knowing you shut out the world and cried out that you wanted to know Him?
John 17:3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
Listen to Jesus in Verse 4″ I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.”
“Then I prayed to the God of heaven…” Nehemiah 2:4b
* Let’s allow the power of prayer to revive our spirit and restore our physical and mental vigor. By following Nehemiah’s example we will have the energy needed to defeat the enemy and thrive in the midst of our day to day challenges.
* Seek security by recognizing God as the Source of security.
*”Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”.(JN 14:6)
Father, thank You for the Truth as it is in Jesus. Lord, through the power of prayer, today’s challenge can be tomorrow’s victory. Forgive me when I make prayer my last resort instead of my first choice. Help me remember the truths You have taught me today. Thank You for prayer and the power I receive when I turn to You. Increase my Personal Relationship with You Jesus.
” Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.” (Jude 24-25). Thank you for loving us so much God that you see us as faultless even when I stumble. Remind me that I can’t become perfect but I can continue to make choices that become more like Christ. God, thank you for salvation and for your Son. Thank You for Your Victory over sin and idols at the Cross. Please help me to serve You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
God’s Love is the only solid foundation upon which human love can be built. If “feelings” have diminished or died within a relationship, only Agape can rekindle the flame.
* “…the things impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27