Awaken Love

DEVOTION

SONG OF SONGS

AWAKEN LOVE

Song 3:1-5

1 All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him. 2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him. 3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. "Have you seen the one my heart loves?" 4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me. 5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

NIV

This is a search for God, or the Messiah, Jesus. This could be Israel or it could be the church. The night is a time as if it is a desertion of sorts, such as Israel seemed to have deserted the Lord from time to time. There are times when it seems the church, or should we say ourselves, have a certain indifference to the Lord, this bed of ours, this long night may be the times of our secret sins, or the secret of our failures. Israel could not find the Messiah in the business of the city, nor can we find the Lord in the hustle and bustle of life. But who is the watchman? Could they be the ministers? In Israel they could be the high priest or the teachers of the law. To us the watchmen could be the pastors of the church, the ones who supposed to keep watch for the truth.  It seems not to matter in the sense the watchman did not know where we might find Jesus. However the point in as we continue to search we will find him, and when we do we need to take him home with us. There is no other way to find Jesus than in our personal search. Others cannot find him for us, we must be the ones looking and having a thirst for him, a love for him. Nothing can satisfy our thirst, our hunger, our life other than Jesus. We can look for satisfaction in our work, or in our church, in our position, our good deeds or whatever seems to drive us to get up in the morning and make our way out into the streets. But unless we find our peace and contentment in Jesus, we find nothing, we continue to search, and asking where he is. The fact remains we will find him as long as we desire to find his love for us. But also finding Jesus without having that love for him, does not much for us. If we just add him to our daily life, it seems meaningless. We must add our daily life to Jesus. He must be our first love, then our daily life is based on Jesus, not Jesus on our daily life. Let us awake our love for him.