Knowledge vs Knowing, part 5

Song of Solomon 1:3 “Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you!” No wonder why we love you: you give us all these things that make us look good.
 

Now, in her final testimony, she says, ‘I am my Beloved’s.’ She really does not even mention herself: “I am His!” She came to this final position because of understanding that His desire was toward her. I am His and His desire is towards me. This is the same as 1 Corinthians 11:3, which says, in essence, that the one who loves God is known by God. This understanding is what allowed her to abandon herself unto Him.

What is it to understand this? It’s a full revelation of His love for us. When we understand that God’s desire is toward us, we understand that His desire to meet every need in our life is greater than our own desire is to meet the needs of our own children. 

There was never a time in any of my kid’s young lives that they worried about us giving them food to eat. Not one of them ever came up to me and said, “You know, Dad, I got to thinking last night in bed about today and I didn’t sleep a wink because I wasn’t sure if you were going to feed me today. Chances are I’ll be getting hungry, but I wasn’t sure if you would let me eat anything.” Why would that sound absurd? It’s because our desire is toward our children – moms, especially. Their desire to meet their children’s needs is so great that they will deprive themselves of nourishment if it meant their child could eat because their desire is toward their children. If a parent’s desire is not toward their children, it’s because they themselves have failed to mature. Their own self-centeredness gets in the way of proper parenting. 

The revelation the bride in the Song came to about God’s desire being toward her, grew out of her own maturity. At first, she was all worried about the needs of her life being met, so she focused on all the things the groom would provide her with; “He is mine,” she said. But as she grew in this relationship, she matured to the point of realizing that she doesn’t need to worry at all about tomorrow because she is known by God. I am His, God knows me. She went from getting all she could from Him, to giving all of her to Him. She came back into a carefree attitude about the future. A child like faith. 

Faith is always love based. Obviously, if a person does not love God it’s going to be quite difficult to live a life of faith. When we love God with all our heart we can then expect Him to care for us because His desire is toward us.   END