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I’m a country girl from the Ozarks of Arkansas, currently serving as a "missionary" in Southern California. While a Registered Nurse by profession, most of my time is spent working with various youth ministries, overseas missions, orphan ministries, doing personal evangelism, and writing/blogging to encourage my friends in their walk with God. I love living the adventure of the "Set-Apart Life" and my greatest interest and passion is living daily for my King, and sharing the joy of this journey with others.

      hiking in the mountains  .  teddy bears  .  special dates with God

quiet streams  .  feeding a hungry child  .  heart-to-heart with girlfriends

                                 true love stories  .  morning sunshine

had and Jessie had just returned from the honeymoon of their dreams. Basking along the white beaches of Cancun, snorkeling, sailing, dining at the finest restaurants, just lying in each others arms...it couldn’t have been more perfect. Now they were home and setting up house. The wedding pictures had just arrived and they “Oooooed and Ahhhhed” over the sacred memories. But Jessie was in for a little surprise.

        As they hung a large version of their favorite wedding pose in the center of the living room wall, Chad came forward with some smaller frames. “Honey, I want you to know that you’re the most important person in my life.  Our picture is the biggest photo in this room. But I’ve got a few small pictures of other girlfriends that I’ve had fun with over the years, and I’m going to hang their pictures along the wall as well.”

        Jessie gasped in astonishment.

      “You don’t need to worry....” Chad continued. “Like I said, our picture is the biggest. But I don’t want to forget these girls either...they are still my friends.”

    It’s obvious that Chad’s behavior is preposterous. No husband who truly loved his wife would pledge lifelong faithfulness to her and then hang photos of old lovers on the walls of their new home.  But though we’d never accept this kind of behavior from our spouse, all too many of us allow this very same attitude into our relationship with our Heavenly Bridegroom.

    We give our hearts to God...to be His bride...wholly His in love...and yet into this covenant relationship we drag our “lovers” of the world. Our lovers come in a variety of shapes and styles – from ungodly television shows and

by Melodious Echo

infidelity of their live-in or marriage partners. First they become jealous. Next they separate. Then if married, they hire lawyers and file a legal grievance for their share of the estate...finally they are divorced. If this is how the Hollywood set plays it on earth, how can any of us be so hypocritical to suggest that, for all the right reasons, our faithful God has no right to be jealous...over the spiritual adultery committed by His covenant people.” 2

        If you look up all the verses on jealousy in the Bible you will find that almost all of them have to do with either “God’s jealous love towards us” or a “Man’s jealous love towards his wife.” God’s jealous love is not ugly or controlling, but beautiful!

            As I’ve awakened to God’s jealous love over me, I’ve begun to truly understand His commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20:3) I used to hear those words and shrug, “I don’t have any other gods in my heart before God, so I guess I’m fine.”

            But I realized what He really meant.  It was evidence of God’s jealous love over me.  He was saying, “Do not allow any other lovers in your life!  Your heart and soul must be mine alone!” I was deeply convicted, because I had plenty of other lovers in my life. Even after I’d given my heart to God, I had drug them along and put them on special pedestals about my life. After all, they weren’t that evil...they had been a special part of my life, and I still loved them.

selfish entertainment, to provocative fashions, and flirtatious habits, to even the more subtle attitudes of self-righteousness, pride, arrogance, self-justification and self-centeredness.

        We are often jealous and protective over our health, our freedom, and our families.  We do everything in our power to guard and preserve these things.  But what about our walk with God? What about His love for us? Why don’t we guard this more carefully, like a “bride jealous over her groom”?

       For most of my years as a Christian, I haven’t understood or practiced godly jealousy.  When I read in the Bible that God was “jealous” towards us, I used to think, “What does that mean? Why is God jealous?  Isn’t that a bit selfish of Him?”

      But then it slowly began to dawn on me. When we commit to give our lives to God, He has exclusive rights over us...rights He will not share with another. Just like when we get married and our husband or wife is jealous for our exclusive affection, God says, “You are mine! I will not share you with other gods! I will fight for you because I love you.”    

        The degree of His holy jealousy shows the degree of His holy love. And the greater the love, the greater the anger when that love is violated.

           Oprah Winfrey, America’s well known and loved talk show host, once stated quite emphatically that the reason she no longer accepts the “Christian’s God” is because she heard a pastor make the statement that God was a “jealous God.”1

        In response to this statement, pastor and author Larry DeBruyn insightfully shared: “Even in the promiscuous real world of Hollywood, celebrities can’t personally cope with the

        My love relationship with God seemed to always be up and down and I didn’t understand why. Sometimes I would surrender my “other lovers” and things would be better for awhile, but then I’d slip back into sync with my old loves and my walk with God would grow distant. As long as I kept trying to walk with God my way, in my own strength and with my other lovers in tow, I kept failing. These lovers (attitudes, lifestyles, selfish ways of behavior) were sucking the very life blood away from the most beautiful love relationship I’d ever been given. The love that had sacrificed it’s very life for me! God was angry...He was jealous for my love! And with good reason.

        Chad and Jessie’s story didn’t happen to a newly married couple. It actually happened to me. But thankfully God has gotten hold of my heart and opened my eyes. The photos of other lovers have not only come down, but they’ve been destroyed! I’ve begun to cultivate godly jealousy in my life. It’s not a jealousy that’s about being selfish or looking out for my needs...it’s a jealousy based on love – a jealously that vigilantly guards the one thing that truly matters in my life. Now, whenever some new “worldly lover” tries to come knocking at my door...I ask my True Love to go and meet it.  And He always does.

        God’s not only jealous over me with love, but I am madly jealous over Him!   *