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Love Awakened
Jon Burgess“Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right.” Song of Songs 2:7
The pure love expressed by King Solomon and his bride is without shame, guile or deception. It harkens back to the Garden of Eden before Adam & Eve sinned and despised each other's nakedness instead of cherishing it. That's what the enemy of our souls has been trying to repeat with each relationship since the Garden. It's what Solomon's bride is warning us against in these verses. She charges us by the gazelles and deer to not awaken love before its time. The animals simply act according to natural instinct. Whatever they feel like doing whenever they feel like doing it is an animals prerogative. We are not animals. In the Garden we were the only ones God breathed in to, the only ones with a soul. We were given charge over the animals not told to live like them. We were given the privilege of walking and talking with God and knowing His will and ways. Ever since the Garden the enemy has been trying to convince us to give in to our animal instincts instead of walking in communion with the Creator. We can see how that trade off went for Adam and Eve. We can see the fallout has been repeated in every relationship between a man and woman who has chosen to awaken love before its time.
This verse was actually one of the guiding scriptures that Cyndi and I held strongly to during our dating and engagement seasons. We were watching many couples around us that we loved and cared for falling in to sexual sin and suffering the relational fallout that followed. To make matters worse this was happening at our Bible College where leaders were training for a life of ministry. We looked, not with judgement, but with a sober trembling that we we could fall just as hard. It didn't help that Cyndi was (and still is) the most beautiful woman on campus. We knew the justifications that sounded as convincing as the snake in the Garden: "If you're going to get married anyway and you truly love each other what's the harm in taking a juicy bite of the forbidden fruit?" I didn't trust myself to honor God and honor Cyndi's purity so I put in some safeguards that my own peers mocked me for. I kissed Cyndi for the first time on the day we were engaged and then not again until our wedding day on June 14, 1997. I just figured that, logically, if our bodies were not close enough to kiss it would be very difficult to do anything beyond that. I was determined to look her in the eyes unashamed on our wedding day. The only way I could wait that long was to not awaken love and passion before its time. I chose not to feed the flame by being smarta, praying hard, and staying painfully accountable. Now, 19 years later, Cyndi and I get to let or love and passion for each other run free because this is the "right time" within the safety of covenant marriage.
Lord, I pray that you would help Cyndi and I to raise our boys in purity. It seems that everywhere we look whether in entertainment, or at the beach with the family, or at school, my boys are being told "it's only natural" to awaken love before its time. I thank you for the way You have made our bodies, but they are not in charge, You are! I thank You for the wives You have for them. I pray for them and for all the amazing young people in my life that they would experience a spiritual awakening in You. That the supernatural would govern the natural and not the other way around! You are raising up a holy generation, a generation set apart for You! I pray that they would not be defined by shame even if they have fallen sexually. That You would heal them and remind them of who they are in Christ Jesus! Thank You for my bride of 19 years and counting. I pray that I would continue to love her by laying down my life. That You would keep my eyes and thoughts only for her and wholly ordered by You! Thank You Jesus, for the gift You brought to me at just the right time, my Cyndi, my bride!
