Session 6

Why love is worth waiting for

From Song of Solomon: A-17 Day Devotional

Love is fun, adventurous, and enticing. The human heart seeks to know and to be known. We desire the beautiful mystery that is love. Our hearts light up at the thought of finding the kind of love we see experienced in the all too famous Nicholas Sparks movies. 

Our God-given desire to love and be loved by someone can become distorted and even destructive if not kept in its proper time and context. If you have ever seen “The Bachelor,” you know this to be true. One man, or woman, goes on a number of dates with multiple contenders hoping to find a spouse. Forget taking your time to get to know one another, you’ve got 23 more dates and millions of viewers to keep happy.

When we take the good desire for love and insist on having it right now, on our terms, someone always gets hurt. That’s the reason why the woman in Song of Solomon begs her friends not to awaken love until it’s proper time, saying “Don’t excite love, don’t stir it up, until the time is ripe—and you’re ready” (Song of Solomon 8:4, MSG). 

Impatience and lack of trust in God’s timing can take something that was meant to be so sweet such as love, and turn it into something so sour such as pain and regret. 

Take a ripe apple, for example. It is not only fresh and delicious, you are also able to enjoy it. The same thing is not true, however, for an apple that is picked outside of its proper season. Not only is the premature apple sour, you are also unable to enjoy it. 

In the same way, when we excite love before it’s proper time, we are robbing ourselves of the pure, refreshing taste of love sprouted in God’s perfect timing. Just like an apple that is ripe, there is a sweetness to allowing love to bloom its proper season and context. 

Like the couple in Song of Solomon, we can rejoice when we take our time and find real love. The love that God wants for us is one not forced or hurried. It does not end in destruction or regret. When we choose to trust God with our love story instead of writing our own, we reap the joy of love that has reached its proper and rightful season. 

Reflect:

• Have you ever experienced a time where you have awoken love before it’s proper time? What kind of pain and regret do you have because of it?
• Have you asked Jesus to heal your regret and pain and allow you to walk in freedom?
• Do you trust God with your love story? If not, what is a practical next step you can take to lay down the pen to your own love story?