This blog entry is part of an on-going series of prayer in response a study of the Song of Solomon. If you’d like to read more, just look for blog titles that start with SOS. You can also read devotionals on this topic by visiting my “Bride” archives at Soulscents.
Prayer Response to Song of Solomon 1:5-7
Father,
It is easy to work hard for you. To rush about trying to find my worth in what I do instead of whose I am. Instead of listening to your voice too often I see the myriad of needs that call to me. I want to serve perfectly—to take care of my children, my husband, my friends, the people in my world. I rush about tending all of these fields, leaving my own heart neglected. Too often I arise in the morning and dive to the work. I push through the day without stopping to rest and fall into bed at night with a billion things still pulling at me.
I don’t take time to let you nurture my soul.
When I am so busy it is easy to become hardened—hardened to my own needs, hardened to the love you offer, and hardened to the joy of serving. It becomes survival instead of joyful living. Pushing through instead of experiencing. Pounding out a finished product instead of letting your creative, life-giving Spirit lead me through a process.
I forget to breath of your fragrance and to hear your song of love.
And when I fail, when I can’t keep up, I am angry with myself. Or I think you’ve let me down and I lash out in accusation. And either way I am shamed. Oh God! Don’t let me hide from you in my shame. Let me instead rush into your open arms and discover the Truth of your heart to me.
Teach me not to neglect my vineyard—my own heart. Don’t let me become so busy caring for others that my soul becomes a place of parch, weed infested, wild ground. Instead show me where you want me to serve and give me the courage to say no to those who would have me tend fields you have not called me to. Give me the strength to say no to my own goals when they do not line up with yours.
Draw me close to you. Why should I serve as one who doesn’t know you, when I am your bride? Why should I work beside you but not rest in your arms, whisper to you my secrets, and be filled with your kisses? I know that kind of barrenness is not what you give to your beloved.
Draw me close to you. Help me remember that everything you want me to do, you birth, you uphold, and you sustain. Help me not to try to birth, uphold or sustain anything you haven’t asked me to do in the first place. Give me joy in the journey. An alive heart that rejoices in relationship and service.
Amen
Written in response to a study on the Song of Songs by Mike Bickle
