For your love is better than wine. (Song of Songs 1:2b NASB)
What does wine say to you?
- Luxury?
- Desire?
- Passion?
- Intoxication?
- Longing?
Our humble maiden is struck with all of this.
She looks at this Shepherd King and this lowly maiden from a nearby village is drawn into the thoughts of luxury, of the lush life, of a life with the man of her dreams in royal robes and plush surroundings.
She sees his rugged handsom beauty and she wants to spend time in His arms.
One look as He passes by stirs passion deep within her.
She imagines that drinking deeply of the scent of Him would surely intoxicate her.
She has a deep longing for intimacy with this man!
You know, for Christians our longings can be tricky. We feel like passion is a problem. We try to push our longings down. For centuries longings of any kind have been frowned upon.
We find our selves expressing our longings in ways that are destructive, and so begin to repent not only for the sin, but for the longings and desires themselves.
This is a problem since God made the longings, and built them into who you are. They are deep inside, and if you live a life suppressing your longings and passions, you end up denying the very life God intended you to live, and the wonderful things He intended you to feel and experience.
Mike Bickel and Deborah Hiebert wrote a book called “The Seven Longings of the Human Heart” where they detail 7 longings (there may be more, but Mike lists 7) in every human.
- A longing to be fascinated
- A longing to possess and feel beautiful
- A longing to be great and successful
- A longing to know intimacy without shame
- A longing for assurance of being enjoyed
- A longing to be wholehearted and passionate
- A longing to make deep and lasting impact
These longings are not part of your sin nature, they are built in by your creator. They require attention and management, but not necessarily suppression.
In fact God’s intentions is that each of these be fulfilled completely in your life, both here and in eternity.
Don’t forget this is the God who put in the pen of David
“Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fulness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.”(Psalm 16:11 NASB)
And this is from the God who created pleasure. What sorts of deep passionate pleasures await us in heaven. I suspect it is more than we could ever think or imagine.
Personally, I love my life here, but I can’t wait.
Fact is, God’s intention is for us to walk in a great measure of this pleasure and wonder here and now, and as we unfold this Song we will see the joy and fulfillment of partnering with the One who created you, and designed you, and bought you, and loves you all to crazy!
Come back next week!
Ben
Wine photo credit: keeva999 (on vacation) via photopin cc
I must chase up the book.
It is usually available on Amazon. It is really encouraging to realize you don’t need to apologize to God for how He designed you, you just need to manage your appetites, and look for how He wants you to satisfy them.
Hi Ben! I love this post–probably because I’m only 18 months into living the Abundant Life with Jesus, and the freedom and joy are truly intoxicating, daily. It is a true tragedy that so many Christians live their lives without that. I was headed that way, “saved” for long decades but completely empty inside–I pinch myself now, realizing that God does love me like crazy, enough to favor me with a revelation of Him just in time for Easter 2011. There aren’t sufficient “thank yous and Hallelujahs” to cover how I feel. God bless you and the family BIG today–love, sis Caddo (old, but “new”)
So glad you’re free – So glad i am getting to walk this walk with you.
Ben, thanks so much for helping us look at this and see that it’s not all bad, but placed in us by God. It’s exciting to think about what all Jesus could do in us and through us as our longings and desires are fulfilled. God bless you! I just knew I needed to listen up to these SOS’s!
It’s gonna get good – I promise – i just love this book/song.
Our longings and our emotions are part of us, as the way God made us. His plan is for us to enjoy life. We are meant to relish in our emotions.
However, we CAN use those longings and emotions in a wrong way. How we allow them to affect our thoughts, hearts and actions, is up to us. They can be used either for good or evil.
We are one day closer to the time when we will enjoy His fullness of joy with NO distractions and nothing to mar our fellowship.
What an amazing God!
That’s It – exactly and God is amazing. I think about that phrase “at His right hand are pleasures forever more” and wonder. It is not a terribly common sermon topic – the pleasures of eternal life, but my bet is on these deep longings that are built into our spirits by our Amazing God!
[...] Fine as Wine – See if you’re not as captivated by the Lover of our souls, as the maiden in this story is… [...]