LOVE FORGIVESনমুনা
Have you ever watched a romantic movie that started with the couple not getting along? As the movie goes on, the walls are broken down and the couple falls in love.
In a similar way, God is wanting to break down your walls to show you true intimacy. Don’t get distracted by the world’s definition of intimacy, which is typically based around a physical relationship. Intimacy is allowing yourself to be fully known, fully loved, fully accepted. It’s letting down your guard completely. This love relationship is the relationship God is longing to have with you. God wants to know you intimately. When we let our guard down, we truly see God and allow Him to see us.
Song of Songs 2:6 (TPT) – ‘His left hand cradles my head while his right hand holds me close. I am at rest in this love.”
Can you picture yourself resting your head on the chest of God? Completely resting in His arms. God is completely captivated by us. He’s completely captivated by you! Song of Songs is a beautiful book in the Bible that talks about the love between Jesus and His bride – the Church – you! This is what He says:
Song of Songs 1:5 (TPT) –
The Shulamite (meaning the Bride of Christ - YOU)
Jerusalem maidens, in this twilight darkness I know I am so unworthy—so in need.
The Shepherd-King (meaning Jesus)
Yet you are so lovely!
The Shulamite (Bride of Christ - YOU)
I feel as dark and dry as the desert tents of the wandering nomads.
The Shepherd-King (Jesus)
Yet you are so lovely — like the fine linen tapestry hanging in the Holy Place. (Emphasis added)
Even when we see ourselves as unworthy. Even when we see ourselves as dark or dry, Jesus says, “Yet you are so lovely!” What love is this? In His pursuit of us, He takes it a step further.
Song of Songs 4:9 (TPT) – “For you reach into my heart. With one flash of your eyes I am undone by your love, my beloved, my equal, my bride. You leave me breathless— I am overcome by merely a glance from your worshiping eyes, for you have stolen my heart. I am held hostage by your love and by the graces of righteousness shining upon you."
God the creator of the universe, the maker of all things, the one that has no comparison, says, “With one flash of your eyes I am undone by your love.” Despite us not feeling worthy, He says, “You leave me breathless.” Despite our sin and mistakes, He says, “You have stolen my heart.” Despite all our excuses, He says, “I am held hostage by your love.”
When we understand the depths of His love, we can’t help but love ourselves. We can’t help but recognize that He loves the person next to you with that same relentless love He offers to you. He wants to fasten Himself to us and be our eternal flame that consumes everything that doesn’t reflect Himself.
Song of Songs 8:6-7 (TPT) – "Fasten me upon your heart as a seal of fire forevermore. This living, consuming flame will seal you as my prisoner of love. My passion is stronger than the chains of death and the grave, all consuming as the very flashes of fire from the burning heart of God. Place this fierce, unrelenting fire over your entire being. Rivers of pain and persecution will never extinguish this flame. Endless floods will be unable to quench this raging fire that burns within you. Everything will be consumed. It will stop at nothing as you yield everything to this furious fire until it won’t even seem to you like a sacrifice anymore."
Allow Him to reveal His love to you. Allow His love to melt your heart. Watch how His overwhelming love shifts the way you see yourself and the people around you!
About this Plan
In this devotional, we will dig into what Scripture says about love, and I will share my story of discovering God’s love, to the point of forgiving the person who hurt me the most in my life. God desperately wants to show you the depths of His love and the person(s) in your life who you have struggled to love and forgive. Will you let love in?
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