My Own Great Awakening

Self-reflection is an interesting thing. Upon discovering and participating in self-awareness in light of faith - it becomes this ongoing pursuit of seeing God's perfect love in all areas. Sure, some can delve into the concept that all that is in the future depends upon themselves - thus removing God from the equation. Others entirely rely so much upon God to do this or that... but yet - He seems to be calling us in to say something different. God can be referred to as Prince of Peace, Christ, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Valiant Warrior, - we can envision a host of a great army... yet we can also envision the great lover of our souls. Jesus is called the bridegroom, and we - the church - His Bride.

Last Saturday I was reading in Song of Songs - catching a glimpse of the love expressed between Solomon and his bride - a reflection of Christ and the church. It says:

SOS 4:9You have ravished my heart and given me courage, my sister, my [promised] bride; you have ravished my heart and given me courage with one look from your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

Could it really be - the eternal God, the Lord of Lords - would look upon me and say I have, we have, ravished His heart? What am I that He should be ravished by me? Who am I to instill courage? On my own - I seek to inspire that courage in others.. .yet I find this to no avail. Taking personal responsibility to inspire others to greatness results in time wasted and no activity when the source is in my efforts and reasoning. Yet - as I surrender all my activity and doing - and just love on Him with all I've got... I find I'm not "doing" anything. I'm practicing what some call "be with".

Luke 10:39 And she had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His teaching. 40 But Martha [overly occupied and too busy] was distracted with much serving; and she came up to Him and said, Lord, is it nothing to You that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me [to lend a hand and do her part along with me]! 41 But the Lord replied to her by saying, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; 42 There is need of only one or but a few things. Mary has chosen the good portion [that which is to her advantage], which shall not be taken away from her.

Mary seated herself at His feat, and just listened. She too could have been preoccupied doing all sorts of things. Yet, we find her sitting and listening. She wasn't credited with asking any questions, requesting to be taught, or trying to do much of anything beyond absorb what was going on. Sure - there is plenty of time for doing things - and faith without works is dead. However, works gets us no where fast. Being with Him is better than all the doing we can invent. Operating from this place of rest, we experience that we are already loved. We do not learn this by reading about it, but living it. Experiencing being apart with Him is like none other.

So - we draw apart, we think, we pray, and we put all our stuff down to experience Him. We catch sight of the divine love He has for us and we learn we ravish His heart. He longs for us to experience Him - to know Him beyond intellect. Quiet down our busy souls and we find such an amazing desire continue to grow. God desires this experience, just as much He desires to partner with us. He's able to control, and in some situations may do just that. The plans though are to create in us the desires of our heart, that we may draw in to Him, and let Him partner with us in these plans. I have little interest left for doing things out of my own efforts. This doesn't work for me... and isn't meaningful enough to make it worth my interest. What I now want is nothing short of experiencing Him.

With one look, I have inspired courage and ravished His heart. This is nothing I can claim comes from my own efforts or any doing. He has chosen to freely love me, to call me His own, to pursue me without reservation. He has chosen the gift of love. I long to experience much more of Him. I want to know when I ravish Him, and to be completely undone over His pursuit of me. This place of union creates such a partnership in all things.

Listening to: Mansions by Burlap to Cashmere

Let your mansions live inside me
Love me, like me, give me, guide me