So much of our Christian life has been self serving; we have been in this relationship with God for what we can get out it. We want our peace, our provision, our comfort, our purpose, our blessings. This is the path that most of us take. However, our desire should be to get to the point that we are more interested in what God gets out of this relationship than what we get out of it.
Song of Songs is a love story between King Solomon and the Shulamite woman. But it is so much more! King Solomon is symbolic of Jesus the Groom and the Shulamite woman is symbolic of the church or Bride or the individual believer. In the first four chapters, the Shulamite is only interested in her comfort, her garden, her pleasure. But she goes through a process where the King withdraws His presence. Through this process, the Shulamite woman begins to change. Notice what the Shulamite woman says in Song 4:16, “Awake, north wind! Come, south wind! Blow on my garden! Let its spices flow from it. Let my beloved come to his garden, and let him eat his own precious fruit.” The Shulamite woman has come to the point that she invites the north and the south wind to blow on her garden. She has come to recognize that in life she needs both the north wind and the south wind. The north wind brings bitter, harsh, cold winds…necessary for pruning and dying off of unwanted growth and weeds. The south wind brings the warm winds good for growth and harvest. She invites these winds, these circumstances in life, to come and blow on her life or garden…whether they are good or bad! Wow!! Then the Bride wants Groom Jesus to come to His garden and eat His own precious fruit. Up to this point, she has only been interested in her own garden and her own precious fruit, but she is changing. The last four chapters she is more concerned with His garden.
Notice that the process began when the Groom Jesus changed. At a point in time in your Christian life, you will notice a shift. At first you float along enjoying His blessings, His presence, His fast answer to prayers with an attitude of, “I love being loved by Jesus!” But then the shift comes. Groom Jesus holds back some of His blessings, withdraws His manifest presence, and delays answers to your prayers. Jesus is asking the question, “Will you love Me for what you can get out of Me or will you love Me for Me alone?” The Shulamite Bride, symbolic of the church, passed the test. Notice Song 8:5, “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” The Bride emerges from the wilderness of life leaning on the Groom! This should be our goal in life…to end life being dependent on Jesus!
Notice what Groom Jesus says to the Bride Church in Song 8:6-7, “Set me as a seal upon your heart…Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it…” Jesus says to the Church, “Set me (Jesus) as a seal on your heart.” This is a seal of identity that your heart would burn with passionate love for the Groom. He says the waters of temptation cannot quench that kind of passionate love!
Where are you in your process of development? God will not let you stay in a self serving mode, only interested in your comfort, your blessings, your garden, your pleasure. If you are going through the pain of delayed answers to prayer, you are in His process of transition, where God is trying to get you more interested in Him than in your comfort. Accept it and ask God to set your heart on fire with a passion for Jesus.
We love yall!
Billy and Sheilah Daws