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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.
I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.
My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.
Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love. The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Song of Songs 1:4; 2:3b, 6, 10-13; 4:16; 7:11-13
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
If you are in a relationship, how much do you treasure the companionship of your partner? Do you value being with them more than anything or do you tend to take them advantage?
As we look at the second of an eight devotion series on the principles of a loving, Godly relationship from the perspective of a woman’s attitude toward her man, we will see from the Song of Songs the depth of how Shulammite cherished her time with Solomon as the word of God encourages us to do likewise within our own relationships. Look at these verses containing words spoken by Shulammite to Solomon:
Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.
I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.
My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.
Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love. The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Song of Songs 1:4; 2:3b, 6, 10-13; 4:16; 7:11-13
As we consider these scriptures and the love condition of Shulammite’s heart, I think we see some specific qualities revealed, qualities that show her deep affection and longing for her mate.
1. She longed for him with eagerness.
Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. And so when a woman and a man are in a relationship that is loving and Godly, they cherish being with one another so much that they can’t wait to reunite when they are apart. This eagerness for being together again dominates their thoughts so much during separation that their reunion becomes blessedly special and precious.
2. She found great delight and sweetness in being with him.
I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
What do you value about being with your mate? What made you fall in love with them in the first place?
The answers to these questions form the delight you find in your partner and it’s those qualities that lead us to cherish their companionship when we have it just as Shulammite expressed so poetically. When we take stock in the things we love about our mate, we find ourselves looking forward to being with them to experience all the things about them that we love.
3. She treasured his embrace.
His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.
There’s something special about being held. We learn it from infancy as we are cradled in love in our father’s and mother’s arms. We continue to experience it as we grow older and find ourselves needing consoled or cuddled. In relationships, it’s a special expression of intimacy, an expression that says, “I want to be near you”. As I do training with people who have been apart for long periods of time, I consistently find the women longing, not solely for sex, but just to be held by their partner again, to be back in their arms snuggling and cuddling. Couples in loving, Godly relationships relish every opportunity to be in one another’s arms.
4. She found great joy in knowing Solomon wanted to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him.
My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”
Something special happens when we show our partner how much we cherish their companionship. They start to reciprocate.
It’s obvious that Shulammite desired Solomon so very much and held him in the highest esteem as a partner. As we read the words he spoke back to her, we find that he eagerly wanted to be with her just as much. The best relationships are ones where both partners equally value one another, willing to self-sacrifice and compromise within the relationship to bring their partner the most love and joy possible. Shulammite and Solomon had such a relationship.
5. She loved anticipating the chance to share herself with her mate.
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.
Since the best relationships involve mutual admiration and self-sacrifice, then we could calculate that each partner would look forward to giving themselves freely to their mate. As we read these words of Shulammite, it’s obvious she looks forward to sharing herself fully in love with Solomon, a love attitude I think we all could aspire to.
6. She yearned to share and experience life and love with her partner.
Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love. The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.
Several years ago, I had to do a lot of traveling between my home in Virginia Beach and the place where I was assigned in Maryland. That traveling amounted to 7 to 8 hours weekly and although I hated the drive, I came to really love how it created time for my wife and I to just talk for hours about everything, free from distraction. We still love getting on the road to travel places, experiencing new things but even more so cherishing every moment we get to be together, no matter where that might be.
Looking at Shulammite’s words, we see the same love attitude expressed. She wanted to share so many experiences with Solomon, whether it was going to the countryside together or spending the night in villages or exploring the vineyards. She saw so many rich opportunities to get out and experience God’s creation and she longed to do it with the man she loved.
Friends, when God brings us into a relationship, He does so expecting that the woman cherishes the companionship he has blessed her with and vice versa for the man. It’s one of the core elements of a loving, Godly relationship and we should ever give Him all our praise when we are fortunate enough to experience it. But there is something even deeper for us to consider here before we end today’s study.
For as we consider this matter of cherishing companionship, perhaps the best way we can adopt the attitude in the way we relate to our partners is by first adopting the attitude in the way we approach God, the One who should be our first love because we only know how to love because of Him (1 John 4:19). When we cherish our companionship with God, then we will live in His will and ways, loving as He loves, cherishing as He cherishes, and committing to our partners as He commits to us.
As we find in all other ways of life, God is to be first in all things because all things come from Him, to include the loving, Godly relationships He blesses us to be a part of.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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