Jealous Prayers

Jealous Prayers

The LORD Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.” Zechariah 8:2, NIV

MOST OF US HAVE A HARD TIME thinking of God as jealous. We see jealousy as petty, volatile, and unbefitting an eternal, sovereign God who holds the entire universe in his hands. But in spite of our objections, God applies the term to himself. He even says his name is jealous (Exodus 34:14). He has a pure, zealous love for his people and grieves when that love is rejected—especially in favor of lesser loves (and all loves are less than his). He portrays himself repeatedly through prophets as a most worthy lover who is often betrayed by adulterous people. These are not the words of a dispassionate God.

It makes sense, if we think about it. Jealousy is a natural by-product of love. After all, if we say we love someone intensely yet don’t seem to care when that person rejects us for someone else, do we really love that intensely? If God is love, then he cannot be a God without jealousy. He longs for the affections of his people, and he wants their affections to prioritize him above all else. It has to be that way. It’s the way love works.

What does that have to do with our prayers and faith? Everything. If God burns with jealousy for the love of his people, our prayers should also burn to put love—ours and others’—in its proper place. It’s one thing to pray for people to enter into a relationship with God; it’s another to pray that they would passionately adore him. One scratches the surface; the other pierces the heart. And since this intensity of love is God’s purpose for everyone called to enter into his Kingdom, we can pray it with the utmost faith. We can pray with the jealous heart of God for those he loves—that his Spirit would pursue them zealously and that their hearts would unfold before him, softening and opening to receive all he has for them. This is the heartbeat of his Kingdom and the most direct way to align our hearts with his Spirit. And it invites his Kingdom powerfully into our world.

There is no human wreckage, lying in the ooze of the deepest sea of iniquity, that God’s deep love cannot reach and redeem.