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 hansom beauty and she wants to spend time in His arms.

One look as He passes by stirs passion deep within her.

She imagines 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 has been frowned upon.

We find our selves expressing out 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

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