“My beloved spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone’” (Song 2:10-11, NIV).
God is calling you out of your past and into your future with Him.
It is of utmost importance that we are known by God. Don’t get so busy laboring for God that you forget to labor with Him. When your motives become distorted and mixed, you can lose focus on His character, nature and perspective.
We can’t forget why Jesus is our beloved. We don’t pursue Him because of all we can get from or bring to Him. Our pursuit of Jesus is about His pursuit of us. It’s about Him.
Whatever we choose to withhold from God will eventually be our downfall. He wants to be involved in all aspects of our lives. God is not a user and a taker; He’s a loving giver.
Only when we stand vulnerably before Him, without any walls or inhibitions, can we truly develop hearts in love with Him.
“Search me, God, and know my heart” (Ps. 139:23).
What situations have you not let God into? Ask Him into every area of your life, not just the ones in which it is easily comfortable to give up control.
Adapted from Out of Control and Loving it! Lisa Bevere is a best-selling author of Fight Like a Girl, Kissed the Girls and Made them Cry, Out of Control and Loving It! and Be Angry and Don’t Blow It! In addition to speaking at national and international conferences, she is a frequent guest on Christian television and radio shows. She and her husband, best-selling author John Bevere, make their home in Colorado.