The Furious Longing of God

May 10, 2019

The Furious Longing of God

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.”

Song of Solomon 7:10 (NRSV)

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me” After spending a season in prayer over this passage, Brennan Manning described God’s desire for you and me as a furious longing. Two things come to mind when I contemplate God’s furious longing for me.

First, I see how it is possible for John’s promise to be fulfilled in my life: “perfect love expels all fear” (1 John 4:18). The Apostle Paul said nothing can separate me from the love of God (Romans 8:35), but when I am in the grip of fear, I can certainly feel separated from Him. I am not thinking of my healthy fear of spiders and snakes. Rather, I am thinking about the fear of my inadequacies separating me from God, or the fear of failure, or the fear of experiencing a loss like Habakkuk’s when he found himself in the place where “the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines.” Even so, Habakkuk responded “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). What if I find myself in a similar place; can I respond like Habakkuk?

Over and against my fears, the furious longing of God reminds me of the precious truth of Zephaniah 3:17, “Yahweh your God is there with you, the warrior-Saviour. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you, as on a day of festival.” (New Jerusalem Bible) When I contemplate the furious longing of God rejoicing over me with a happy song, fear loses its grip. 

I am also contemplating all the healing good that pours into my life through the love of the One who has a furious longing for me. The cascading negative thoughts can be replaced by streams of living water flowing through the green pastures of God’s favor and blessings. No longer dependent on other people or circumstances to meet my needs for love, acceptance and self-worth, I now find all of my needs fulfilled in Him whose love never fails, whose mercies never come to an end, but are renewed each morning. (Lamentations 3:22) When I give up and allow the One who has a furious longing for me to catch me, I am confronted with the awesome reality that the One who loves me and gave himself for me actually likes me; the Father of the Lord Christ Jesus really is very fond of me!

My Takeaway: The Apostle Paul said that he felt like he was suffering through the pain of childbirth until Christ was formed in the followers of Christ. (Galatians 4:19 NRSV) As a follower of Christ, I have come to believe with every fiber of my being that the fruit of Christ being formed in me is my rejoicing in the truth that the One who has a furious longing for me really is very fond of me!

Hallelujah!

Sē’lah

Alex

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.