CityLight Church’s One Year Bible Reading Plan
Thursday, December 17th, 2015
Nahum 1:1-3:19
Revelation 8:1-13
Psalm 136:1-26
Proverbs 30:7-9
For full text click here: http://bit.ly/1uUsZ4o
Commentary from Pastor Michael White:
God is jealous, and the Lord avenges… – Nah 1:2
I grew up hearing it was not Biblical to be jealous. Yet Nahum 1:2 says that God is jealous. So what gives? Why is God allowed to be jealous, but we’re not?
God’s jealousy and our jealousy come from different places. God’s jealousy is perfect; He is jealous from a place of love. He loves us perfectly, and wants us to understand that nobody else can love us like He can. He is jealous for each and every man and woman: He wants us all to be with Him in Heaven for all eternity.
Our jealousy, on the other hand, is imperfect; we are jealous from a place of fear. We are jealous when someone around us has more stuff than us, or gets more recognition than we do, because we’re afraid of what that says about us. Fear and love are mutually exclusive: there is no fear in love, because perfect love casts out all fear (1 Jn 4:18). That is why God is allowed to be jealous, and we are not!
Prayer:
Father, thank You for Your perfect jealousy. I want to be zealous – full of passion and zeal for Your name – but never jealous. Help me to know the difference.
© Michael D. White, 2015. All rights reserved.