He Calls You Beautiful By Dee BrestinSample

On the Arm of the Beloved

In order for us to become one with the Lord, leaving and cleaving must be something we choose daily. It begins the moment we wake up and swing our legs out the side of the bed to approach our day. Will it be with hearts of gratitude and an expectancy to experience God’s presence? Will we long to meet with Him, knowing He wants to see our faces and hear our voices? Will we leave e-mail, Facebook, the morning news, or any of the calls of this world so that we can cleave to Him?

All through the day we have choices to leave our idols with their siren calls and choose to cleave to Jesus. Nothing is exempt: from what we put in our mouths to what we put in our hearts, from responding to our surly teen to responding to the slow-as-molasses clerk at Walmart. Will we leave our old sinful responses that have failed us so many times and instead let Jesus lead the dance?

Every day the Enemy tells us the same old lie that he has used from the beginning: that God does not have our best interests at heart and we cannot be happy unless we go our own way. The Enemy wants to steal from us the joy and the sense of God’s sweet presence that come with obedience.

How wonderful it will be when I cannot sin anymore, when I will not even think about running to false lovers but am content to stay under the shadow of my One True Beloved. No longer will my idols tell lies to me, luring me and breaking my heart. For God will take me to His heart and keep me close, as the Shulammite woman pleads for her bridegroom to do at the close of the Song of Songs. Our great wedding will not occur until the day when we see Jesus face to face. But the Song foreshadows that incredible day when we will step out of the wilderness on the arm of our Beloved.

So let us cooperate with God’s process by realizing how deeply loved we are by the One who sees us naked, with every blemish, yet loves us to the sky.

Why do you think God uses the image of a bridegroom coming to His bride to describe His relationship with us?

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