He Calls You Beautiful By Dee BrestinSample

No Ordinary Love

I can get so discouraged when I repeat a sin of which I have repented! Why do I lose my temper with my little grandchildren, whom I love so much? Why do I graze on food that I know I don’t need? Why does my heart not break for the things that break the heart of God?

I cannot deliver myself. Who will deliver me? Only Jesus. So I cry for those ungodly ties to be broken. But that is not enough—unless God comes to me, I will never be free, for heart idols cannot be removed but only replaced. I will never be chaste unless God ravishes me with His love. As John Donne writes in his famous poem, Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God:

Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

These are strong words, but that is what we need to be set free from the siren songs of our idols. And this is why the repeated refrain of the Song of Songs is desire. Desire for God is the secret of setting us free from the Enemy, who seeks to destroy us.

I think of the Christian refugees in Syria today—how they have lost everything in order to hold on to their faith. Because they would not deny Christ when ISIS militants told them, they have lost their families, homes and country. Do they not long for the return of the King, when He will make all things right? Then there will be no more sorrow, no more sin, no more sickness, and no more heartbreaking partings. Like the maiden in the Song, the refugees are sick with love as they wait for that beautiful day. Their desire for God is the greatest passion of their lives.

The love of longing for Christ is no ordinary love. It is a love that creates in us a desire for more and more of our Lover. Do you want to be set free? Then learn what it means to be ravished by God.

Why can we not break our sin habits by ourselves? What does a desire for God have to do with sacrifice?