“My beloved spoke, and said to me:
‘Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.’” Song of Solomon 2:10
Jesus is calling each of us to come away with Him, to go deeper, to learn the mystery of abiding in Him, to live and breathe and move by His Spirit. He wants us to hunger and thirst after Him, to seek Him with our whole hearts. He wants to empty us, flow into us, and overflow through us.
And, Jesus wants to be our Beloved, our First Love. Yes, He is our Savior, Creator of the universe, enthroned in heaven above, holy and powerful and good. Yes, He is sovereign, and His plan is much bigger than any one person. That notwithstanding, Jesus loves me. He chose me. He knows me intimately, and He still chooses me and longs for me to know Him intimately.
That, my friends, is a love story unlike any other. It’s a delight I cannot fully wrap my head around, a truth that is more stunning the more I ponder it. To think, the God who hung the stars and spoke the world into existence, knows and cares about me! And He knows and cares about you, too.
What if, instead of worrying about temporal things, we lived in the reality of that love story?
What if, instead of seeking love from people around us, we let His love be enough?
What if, instead of striving, we rested in Him, learned the secret of abiding in Him?
What if, instead of wanting to be know by others, we remembered that He knows us?
What if, instead of seeking recognition and praise from others, we sought only His?
What if, instead of trying to do this life on our own, we let Him fill us and live through us?
What if, instead of trying to serve and do and be, we let Him pour and overflow in us?
What if, instead of duty and devotion, we let love and passion and hunger for God drive us?
What if, instead of fighting sin, we fixed our eyes on Jesus and simply ran from sin to Him?
What if, instead of distractions and idols, we remembered our First Love?
It is to this that He is calling you and me. To fall afresh in love with Him. Not a silly, romantic, Hollywood kind of love. No, a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love, a love that chooses, a love that changes us, a love that endures through thick and thin, a love that has emotion and depth and is real regardless of emotion. That’s the love He has for us, the love He offers us, and the love He longs to receive from us. Not because He needs it. But because He desires it.
“My Beloved is mine, and I am His.”
What joy, what delight, what wonder! Jesus is mine, and I am His!
Radiantly loved by God,
~Andrea
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