FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Sunday, February 11, 2007,3:43 p.m.
A LOCKED GARDEN
I was chatting with someone last night who was expressing a desire to "re-connect" with that initial passion that they had when they first believed and began a relationship with the Lord. I found myself resonating with the desire, and wanted to experience anew a time when my passionate love for God was an all-consuming emotion.
Then as I was reading in Song of Songs this afternoon I came across this passage in chapter 4 that says this:
You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. (Song of Songs 4:12-15)
Despite the obvious message of how rich and fertile and beautiful the garden is, I was struck also by the fact that the garden is locked up. Who locked it? Who sealed the fountain? My conclusion was that the bride herself has locked up her garden - who else can lock the garden but its owner? I was struck by the lover (God) reminding his bride (each of us) of how incredible we are, and yet we must unlock the gate and invite Him into our gardens. How many of us, through wounds we have received have locked ourselves up tight so as to be protected from all other hurts? That self-protection will protect us even from the Father - the Healer.
Verse 16 is a prayer and a prophetic call that I prayed over my own life today, and also over the lives of many of my friends.
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. (Song of Songs 4:16)
I want to let my Lover in. I want Him to have all of me - not just in words, or when I sing the lyrics to a song about surrender. All of me. All of the garden that He Himself has created. Everything. The gate is unlocked. Come, Lord.
Then as I was reading in Song of Songs this afternoon I came across this passage in chapter 4 that says this:
You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. (Song of Songs 4:12-15)
Despite the obvious message of how rich and fertile and beautiful the garden is, I was struck also by the fact that the garden is locked up. Who locked it? Who sealed the fountain? My conclusion was that the bride herself has locked up her garden - who else can lock the garden but its owner? I was struck by the lover (God) reminding his bride (each of us) of how incredible we are, and yet we must unlock the gate and invite Him into our gardens. How many of us, through wounds we have received have locked ourselves up tight so as to be protected from all other hurts? That self-protection will protect us even from the Father - the Healer.
Verse 16 is a prayer and a prophetic call that I prayed over my own life today, and also over the lives of many of my friends.
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. (Song of Songs 4:16)
I want to let my Lover in. I want Him to have all of me - not just in words, or when I sing the lyrics to a song about surrender. All of me. All of the garden that He Himself has created. Everything. The gate is unlocked. Come, Lord.
