Mount Ararat | Hale and Hearty Words

He is jealous from me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions Eclipsed by glory

and I realize just how beautiful You are And how great Your affections are for me.

–How He Loves, David Crowder Band

The verse above is how the song How He Loves begins. If you’ve ever heard it, that very first phrase can really penetrate your spirit if you let it.

He is jealous for me.

He loves me. He desires my heart, my praise, my time, and my faith. He wants to bestow his presence and his peace on me.

God has let his jealousy for his people play out over and over throughout the Bible, giving us stories that test and develop faith, and most of all, show how God’s love and promises are revealed in his jealousy.

Mountains play quite a role in displaying God’s desire to have the full attention, focus, and hearts of his people.

Over and over, God used the mountains to send a message.

Mount Ararat— God sent the promise of no more destruction in a rainbow to Noah and his family.
Mount Horeb (Sinai)— God told Moses just how jealous he was, and instructed that he be the only God to whom the Hebrews bowed and worshiped.
Mount Carmel— God showed the 450 prophets of Baal who was the most powerful.
Mount Moriah (Mount Zion)— God commanded the full obedience and love of Abraham in the form of the sacrifice Isaac. But God provided Abraham with a ram, saving Isaac and showing just how deep God’s jealous love can run.

Many of us have had spiritual mountains in our lives.

They come in the form of trails and tribulations that have challenged our faith. We have to traverse these mountains, overcoming the hardship. When we reach the summit, we often see God revealed.

They come in the form of spiritual highs where we feel close to God, and valleys of trouble where we wonder if God is there at all.

They come in the form of moments when God reveals his jealous love for us, demanding our time and attention.

It’s these mountains– the small moments, that we often ignore or sweep to the side as insignificant, reducing them to molehills.

Let me give a couple of examples from my own life.

About two years ago I was able to take a tour of the Mormon Temple in Atlanta when it was open to the public for rededication. Obviously I am not Mormon, but I have been fascinated by the Mormon faith for as long as I can remember.

When I returned home that night, I dove into my Bible, hungry for the truths to dispel the lies that had been fed to me that day. That night I prayed that God would use my interest in the Mormon faith in a specific way– that he would show me how I could be involved in leading people away from Mormonism and Joseph Smith’s Jesus and to the true saving power of Jesus Christ.

I had a moment that night while I sat alone in my bed praying– a moment that has been seared into my mind and my heart. I felt the power of God. I heard him saying, “Yes, my child,” as I prayed for the opportunity to work with anti-Mormon missions. I have no idea how God is going to bring it about specifically in my life, but I know he will.

That was a mountain for me. When I’ve shared that story before, I’ve gotten mixed feedback, like many people don’t want to believe that God would speak to me about such a thing as Mormonism. But Mormons need the real Jesus, too, right?

So I will not reduce that moment to a molehill. It wasn’t. It was a mountaintop where God said, “I want all of my people to know my son.” I’m only a willing participant in that moment.

The second example I want to share has been happening a lot lately.

As I near the moment we expect to meet our third child, I haven’t been sleeping much. I’m having all the normal symptoms of a woman in her last month of pregnancy– trying to find a comfortable position to sleep is one of them.

I’ve been waking around 4 am every morning. I’m frustrated by that. I’m tired. I’m exhausted, really.

So I prayed about it and asked God to help me get some more sleep. You know what he said? He said NO.

Instead of tossing and turning and hoping for a couple more hours of sleep, I’ve felt compelled to get up and spend those wee morning hours with Him.

He is jealous for me. He wants my time and attention and he’s let me know. He’s fed me in those moments, given me rest through his word.

This is another mountain for me and I will not reduce it to a molehill.

God is jealous for us. He wants us– our whole hearts and our devotion. He won’t accept anything less.

So when he displays that jealousy at a mountaintop moment, don’t reduce it, cast it off, or ignore it. Take it for what it is– God’s unending love reaching for you.

Share with me: Do you have any mountains in your life where God has displayed his jealousy for you or for others?