Pressing In And Moving On

The idea of you and I having our identity rooted and grounded in the reality that we are loved by God, and lovers of God sounds great but often feels impractical to walk out before God and man. This tension I believe is one of the core issues for the majority of those who have given their lives to Jesus. The Bible tells us in Revelations that satan is the accuser of the brethren and he accuses us before God day and night (Rev. 12:10) We often feel the heat of this accusation as it comes so close to home. The devil is quick to point out our weak flesh before God and us. Jumping on any opportunity to accuse when you and I blow it before God. Although most of this is truth, its no the full story. Because of Jesus, grace and truth came into the earth and our relationship with Him gives us the ability to receive this when we need it, both grace and truth. He has made a way for us to move on by repenting and using the strength of our efforts to resist sin, and grow into what becomes a righteous life.

The Bible has a short and powerful book that many refer to the love book, called the Song Of Songs. In this book God uses the love between a King and a peasant women,as a picture of the Love between Jesus and His Bride, the Church, or those who have given their lives to Him through the Cross. I will refer to the peasant women in the Song Of Songs as the bride. A powerful side note is the idea that this peasant women won the heart of a King which is truly our story. The God of all created order has fallen head over heels in love with weak, broken and poor humans. This astounds the heart of humanity as we gaze upon it. So back to this idea of being liked and loved. In the opening chapter of the Song Of Songs the bride runs head first into her weak flesh, and makes the comment that she is dark but lovely (Song Of Songs 1:5). The bride is saying that she has weak flesh but is still lovely to God in her sincerity to live right before Him. This is a hard thing for us to come up against, the idea that we are dark, or have weak flesh and are still lovely to God. We can easily agree with reality that we are dark of heart and or weak in our flesh, but saying that we are still lovely to God in this place of weakness is nearly impossible to declare from our mouths, much less our hearts.

I need to establish something before I go any further. When I say or quote the scripture dark but lovely I am not referring to the rebellious but the sincere. The rebellious has no grounds for being confident before God in their weakness. Its like sinning on purpose because their’s grace available to cover it up. This grace is available to us in our pursuit of a righteous lifestyle before God and man. The condition of the heart has everything to do with it. The whole idea of being dark of heart but still lovely to God, is in the context of the sincere not the rebellious.

So, I think that one of the reasons we struggle with being loved by God in our weakness is due to the fact that we really don’t know the Fathers heart towards the sincere. Just a few verses later in the first chapter of the Song Of Songs Jesus has some things to say to the bride in her broken state, and before He tells her anything about what He would like her to do, He says you look good to Me, and I love you (Song Of Songs 1:8-9). He says you look good to Me, and I love you. These statements weren’t being said to her when things we quote unquote going well for her, but rather when she was broken before God and faced with the reality of her weak flesh or her dark heart. We often relate to God based on how our prayer life goes, or our Word life or how well we have stayed free from the things we continually struggle with. The problem with this ideology is that when we have a bad day, or struggle in these same areas we are no longer able to relate with God, as we feel that He is mad, disappointed or let down by us. The bride tells Jesus, that she is dark, she has issues and His response to her is I know, but I like you and I am in Love with you.

We must allow these tender words break into our hearts and establish a new reality of who This Man Christ Jesus Really is. When I say new reality I don’t mean something outside the context of the Bible, but rather what the Bible really says and not the accusations of the enemy the devil. The Bible is filled with page after page of God making it very clear that He is in love with weak broken humans. This is something that the god of this age has blinded us from, because after this reality breaks into our hearts it causes us to live different before God and man. We gain confidence that we are loved even in our struggle to love God and love others. Dark but lovely to God. Give yourself to this reality, you are liked and loved by Jesus in your weakness.