Day 9: Awaken to Love (Song of Songs 1:2b)

The bride states the reason for desiring her Beloved kiss in Song of Songs 1:2. She said:

 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— For your love is better than wine.

An initial knowledge of the Beloved's love was the drive behind her expressed desire. Without God's love for you, your love for Him will be non existent and that's why 1John 4:19 says "We love Him because He first loved us".

Without a deep knowledge of God's love as foundation, your love for Him will be tossed to and fro by the challenges of life, the ideologies of men and popular opinion till it eventually crumbles. Paul prays in Ephesians 3:17: reading from the Easy English bible

 'I pray that Christ will make his home in you, as you believe in him. Then you will know God's love very well. You will be like trees that have roots which go down deep into God's love. That will make you strong. '

The deeper the root of a tree, the stronger it is and the harder it is to uproot. Strength and consistency in your walk with the Lord is dependent on the depth of your knowledge of His love. So before you can be head over heels for Jesus you must awaken to the reality of God's love for you. 

To awake to the reality of God's love, you must find from the bible the three ways God expresses His love to man:

1. By direct proclamations of His love:

God is not emotionally distant. He is not shy about His love for man. At every opportunity He can, He both whispers and screams His love. One of God's such proclamations of His love is in Isaiah 43:4 where He tells Israel:

 '...you are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you... '

The bible is God's personal love letter to you. So find every proclamation of His love and personalise them.

2. By His acts of kindness: 

In Jeremiah 31:3, God says:

 'I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with my loving kindness.'

Every thing God does is motivated by love. As the Father loves us so does Jesus our Beloved, so He chose to die. The cross is the greatest expression of Christ's love for you. You must know what Jesus did for you in His death, burial and resurrection. This is well detailed in the new testament especially the Pauline epistles.

3. By His affirmations:

One great example was Christ at His baptism. Before He had done anything at all. Before He healed any sick or preached one sermon, God said about Him: 'This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased'. Just like Jesus had to do nothing to earn God's love and acceptance, you don't have to do anything. There are many scriptures about what God thinks and says about us. Find them and meditate on them.

Your knowledge of, study, meditations and confessions of God's love must include these three. Together they give a perfect, well rounded perspective on His love for you. 

PRAY WITH ME:

Open my eyes Lord to scriptures that show me how much you love me. Let my heart awaken to the reality of your love for me that I may be rooted and grounded in it, unshakeable in my faith. Amen.

REFLECT AND ACT:

• Have you experienced God showing His love for you in these three ways?

• Find scriptures that express these three. Study, meditate on, know them by heart and confess them.