For your love is better than wine. – Song of Songs 1:2

What does wine say to you?

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p class=”p1″>Luxury?
Desire?
Passion?
Intoxication?
Longing?

Our poor 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 handsome 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.

Her longing for intimacy with this man runs to the depths of her soul.

You know, for Christians, longings can be tricky. We feel like passion creates a problem. We try to push our longings down. For centuries longings of any kind have been frowned upon.

We find ourselves 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 created the longings, and built them into who we are. They are deep inside, and if we live a life suppressing our longings and passions, we end up denying the very life God intended us to live, and the wonderful things He intended us to feel and experience.

Mike Bickel and Deborah Hiebert wrote a book called “The Seven Longings of the Human Heart” where they detail seven longings (there may be more, but Mike lists seven) in every person.

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p class=”p1″>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 management, not suppression. [tweet this]

In fact, God intends for the complete fulfillment of each of these in our lives, both here and in eternity.

Don’t forget this is the God who put in the pen of David,

You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. – Psalm 16:11

This same God 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 intends for us to walk in a great measure of this pleasure and wonder here and now. As we unfold this Song we will see the joy and fulfillment of partnering with the One who created us, and designed us, and bought us, and loves us all to crazy!

Come back next week!

Until then I remain yours,

Ben

Here’s a link to the Bickel and Hibbert’s book.

Note: the link below is an affiliate link.