My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo. the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land…My beloved is mine and I am his.
Song of Solomon 2:10-12,16
Prayer is intimacy with God. Our Maker, our God, seeks intimacy with us. Intimacy grows in the soil of respectful relationships. Intimacy requires a sense of emotional and spiritual safety that is mutual between the parties involved. It is the sense of trust that one will be met with acceptance, grace and love that opens the possibility for an ever deepening transparency with each other.
The experience of intimacy is the experience of deeply knowing and of being deeply known. It is the experience of being emotionally and spiritually (and sometimes physically) naked and unashamed with each other. Intimacy is a mutual loving that is tender, strong and enduring.
This text from Scripture comes from a book of love poems. The Song of Solomon is a series of poems that express the longing, the passion, the tenderness of an intimate relationship. This book honors the beauty and vulnerability of human intimacy and offers a picture of the intimacy that is possible with God.
Intimacy with God becomes possible as we let go of our pretense, of our self-reliance, of our efforts to hide. It becomes possible as we become naked and unashamed before God.
But even in this, God takes the lead. God became vulnerable in Jesus. God, in Jesus, come to us as a baby, weak and dependent. God, in Jesus, lived and laughed and wept and was tempted. God, in Jesus, openly expressed longing and love for each and every one of us. God, in Jesus, was literally stripped naked before the world.
As we begin to experience the reality of God’s vulnerable availability to us, we grow in our freedom to give ourselves to God. We learn more and more to surrender in love to the One who is Love.
This giving of oneself and one’s heart to God, as a response to receiving the Self and heart of God, is the intimacy to which prayer leads. It is the intimacy of knowing ourselves to be God’s beloved. And of knowing God as our true Beloved.
It is the pure joy of being able to hear God’s tender voice calling to us, ““Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
You are my Beloved
and I am yours.
You call me your love,
your fair one.
You give your self to me,
your heart to me.
I give my self,
my heart to you.
Loving you,
being loved by you
is true joy.
Prayer suggestion:
Taking a few slow, easy breaths. Let yourself sense the Light of God ‘s love surrounding you. Let yourself sense the tender, vulnerable love of God toward you. As you are able, let go of all pretense and be vulnerable with God. Share your heart with God. Let God share God’s heart with you.
Today I sought these verses from Song of Songs as I felt I should send them to a
friend in need. I have been intrigued to find the same verses being sent back to me
twice today, by yourself Juanita and by a prophetic ministry whose web site I
subscribe to.
Thank you for explaining these lovely words and helping us to apply them to ourselves.
What an interesting experience you had today of giving these beautiful words of intimacy and hope to a friend only to receive them back twice. Thank you, Lynne, for your words of blessing and encouragement to me as well. May we grow in our ability to make our home in the spaciousness of God’s love.
As I woke up this morning, I saw my plaque on my dresser that said live, laugh, love. I told the Lord, i want to live because you live, I want to laugh because you are joy, I want to love because you are love. I am a recovering victim of serious spiritual abuse, emotional abuse and actually I call it spiritual rape. Every inch of the goodness of Jesus that I longed for was taken from me and one day as i was still imprisoned the Lord took my to that song of solemn. I could not picture that in my life but I knew He took me to it. I am learning as a child all over again to embrace all He has for me because He took me away from that dark satanic prison I was in and I am a survivor still longing for Him. I pray I never sit on the side lines passively and watch someone go through spiritual or any abuse and not stand up from them as so many did with me in my family. Thank you Juanita and I am very much embracing your books.
Thank you, Elizabeth for sharing your gut wrenching, powerful story here. I love your comment that you are “learning as a child all over again.” I so relate to that. Bless you as you continue on your healing journey. Bless you for being a person who is ready to stand up for others who are experiencing spiritual abuse.
Thank you Juanita. Im still extremely tender in the changes or season i am in. But do i want to lose that because i dont want to forget the pit i was in He brought me out of. I have been unleashed and im still figuring out what to do with all this overwhelming pain i was forced to suppress. Im expressing myself and it feels so good and to know im not afraid of any of my abusers and i see my God is on my side.i am free!
The overwhelming pain you were forced to suppress does need to be expressed to a few trusted others and to God. I find the Psalms and prophets to be very helpful in giving voice to the outrage, the lament and the anguished questions that rise up out of us as we heal from trauma. I am grateful that you are expressing yourself and finding the healing, freedom and clarity that comes from this, Elizabeth.