Feasting on God's Love

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus. 

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

Song of Songs 2v3-4: “As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”

Going Deeper:

Our world is obsessed with the concept of love, in fact it’s completely fixated on the idea of it. Perhaps this is because every single person on earth has a deep, insatiable hunger and desire to love and be loved by someone. That’s why so many movies, songs, letters, poems and plays have been written about humanity’s desire and quest for love. We are all seeking to find a love that truly and fully satisfies us.

As we turn to the Bible we see that it too addresses our great need and desire for love. In its pages we find the answers we are so earnestly looking for, its words so perfectly conveying the greatest love story of all time. The story of a God who loved us with such passion and commitment that he could not bear to be separated from us. That he so longed to be reconciled to us that he sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross for us, so that through him we could be redeemed and reconciled back to God. 

The book of Song of Songs embodies this narrative through a collection of beautiful love poems. Whilst these poems are an incredible picture of marriage and the love shared between a man and a woman, they are also an allegory of God’s deep love and affection for us.

Throughout Song of Songs God highlights to us:

That he longs and desires to be with us (Song of Songs 7v10: “I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me”). 

That he wants to speak with us, to hear our voice and for us to share our lives with him (Song of Songs 2v14: “Let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely”).

That his love fully satisfies us, and is better than any other love we have encountered (Song of Songs 1v2: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine”).

That he invites us to come into his presence having full access to him through Jesus. To know him intimately and to be known by him, to love him and be loved by him. (Song of Songs 1v4: “Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers”.) 

That he brings us into the banqueting hall and his banner over us is love (Song of Songs 2v4). 

A banqueting hall is a place for feasting and celebrating. God is the one who brings us into a place of celebration as we take delight in and enjoy the wonder of his love for us, and the depth of relationship that he extends towards us. His banner over us is his declaration to all that we are loved by him, that we are his and he is ours.

This is the feast he calls us to: delighting in his love for us and finding joy in our relationship with him.

How then, do we practically go about doing this?

Feasting means Believing

Delighting in his love means believing that what he says about us and how he feels about us is true.

How do you think God feels about you? Do you believe he longs to extend his grace towards you, so that you can draw near to him? Do you believe he desires to be with you, longs to speak to you and hear from you? That his love can satisfy you? That not only is he crazy in love with you, but that he genuinely likes you and enjoys your company? 

Scripture shows us that this is God’s disposition towards us, but for various reasons we can sometimes find this incredibly hard to believe.

In the medieval times, banners were used as signs in times of war to proclaim a message to ones enemies or friends. In some sense we can sometimes find ourselves in our own war, a battle inside our hearts and minds. 

Often our enemies are our own thoughts about who God is and our identity in him, doubting his love and affection for us. We might find ourselves questioning his love during this season as we find ourselves experiencing new difficulties, struggles and pain in the midst of this pandemic.

Satan, our enemy, would love for us to believe that these thoughts are true and so he too whispers lies to us trying to convince us that God merely puts up with us at best, and that he could not possibly be overwhelmed with love and desire for us. He tries to convince us that God’s love isn’t secure, that God is disappointed with us and that God has abandoned us during this Coronavirus crisis. 

Culture lies to us to, trying to convince us that we are on our own, damsels in distress, left to fend for ourselves. That God’s love could never fully satisfy us and there must be more that we require.

But God’s banner over us is a declaration to our enemies. His banner of love is what we need to take hold of as we denounce these lies and declare the truth that we are dearly loved by him, that he is present with us and that his love fully satisfies.

We can practically take hold of this banner by meditating on and memorizing scripture. As we do this, the truth of God’s word sinks deep into our hearts and minds. It becomes a weapon we can use against our enemies, as God’s words spoken to us and over us become the loudest voice in our lives, louder than the lies.

Feasting Means Receiving

It means taking God up on his invitation into relationship with him. 

Some of us might be at the place where we believe that God loves us, we know he feels about us and yet we find ourselves battling to engage in our relationship with him because he feels so distant and far away.

Let’s be honest, relationship with an invisible God can often be hard and difficult. We see this same struggle portrayed in Song of Songs 3v1: “All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.” 

At times it’s simpler for us to find satisfaction in a study of who God is and his love for us, as opposed to cultivating an intimate relationship with him. It’s easier to treat God like an idea to be examined rather than a person to be encountered. And yet when we settle for the former we miss out on the offer that God puts before us to experience the profound joy and pleasure of a relationship with him. 

Jesus didn’t die on the cross just so that we could know him intellectually or factually, he died on the cross so that we could know him personally. The veil was torn in two so that we could come into his presence directly, knowing him for ourselves. He promises us in the scriptures that when we seek him we will find him (Matthew 7v7), that when we draw near to him he will draw near to us (James 4v8).

We see this promise fulfilled as the woman in Song of Songs seeks for the one her heart loves.

Song of Songs 3v2-4: “I will get up now and go about the city; through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?” Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go.”

How can we practically seek God’s presence and draw near to him when he feels far away and distant? 

We can seek God in prayer. 

As we focus our attention on God in prayer we make ourselves available to him, for him to speak to us and for us to speak to him. Where we find ourselves distracted, perhaps by busyness or the current circumstances surrounding us, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us focus on Jesus and to cultivate an awareness of God in our lives. The Holy Spirit helps us to know who God is, to know his love for us, and that God is present with us by revealing God to us. 

Feasting Means Enjoying

As the Holy Spirit helps us feast on God’s love for us, believing in it and receiving it for ourselves, he stirs up an adoration and a deep appreciation in our hearts for God. 

We find joy in his presence as we marvel in wonder that the God of the universe is mindful of us, that he knows the amount of hairs on our heads, that he stores our tears in a bottle and that even whilst we were still sinners he died for us because he loved us. 

We enjoy and delight in God through the practice of praise and worship as we stand in awe of this great miracle; that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is completely and utterly in love with us.

Ultimately feasting on God’s love for us strengthens us in times of trouble, it nourishes us in times of famine. As we focus our attention on him we find that he is present with us and that despite the season we might presently find ourselves in, because of his great love and care for us and our connection to him, this can still be an incredible time of fruitfulness in our lives. That we can grow in our relationship with God, in knowing his love, and in our love for him.

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to your from this passage this morning.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?