They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold any water. 2:13, NIV.
I know how true that is in my own life and how I just try to fake it. Case and point: Every morning, I wake up and go to school. I have to walk several blocks to class and on the way I love to listen to music on my iPhone. And I got this almost slap in the face from Jesus to wake me up that there was something in my heart that refused to give it up, even though Jesus kept saying to me, "I love you. Be intimate with me! Be close to me! Worship me! Surrender to me!" And it took effort to actually let go of that music and surrender in worship to God's Spirit. And once I did, I rejoiced in being near to him. But there was this part of myself that was just bitter toward God's advances to me. Odd...But it's my own battle against my flesh. My rebellious part of me that refuses to be God's beloved. I love what Peter Kreeft said about this in his essay Joy:
The old self has sold itself to the devil. It's his microphone...When we're about to give ourselves to God, it instantly whispers to us:..."hold back...He is dangerous. In fact, he's a killer"... It's true, God is a killer. If you let him, he will kill your old, selfish...self. But he will do it only if you want him to; and he will do it only as much as you want him to. God is a gentleman; he will never rape your soul, only woo it.
Everything is about one thing: intimacy with Jesus or intimacy with lesser things of the world. Contrary to public belief, God is extremely concerned with intimacy. He is the most sexual being ever. So much, that he even considers political happenings in extremely explicit terms. Just read Jeremiah, or Ezekiel 16 or 23, or Revelation 17 and 18-when he looks at the city of the Antichrist and calls it the great whore who was a whore with all the kings of the earth. Harsh? Maybe these are just passages riddled with metaphor or symbolism? Hardly! God just sees things with his eyes. And so he sees things clearly and with purity and truth. God is relational. And it's not just imaged in physical intimacy, just look at the emotional intimacy he desires. How many times does he say, I am not a God who desires sacrifice and peace offerings. I want you and your heart. Give me you, leave the sacrifice at home please. That was ended after Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice. There was no need for sacrifice after his death. And so sacrifices in the old testament take on a foreshadowing of our Savior's death. Blood must be shed for sins to be atoned.
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22 NIV
We are in a time now where instead of sacrifices being the image of something greater, it is marriage that images what will be one day with Jesus. The cross was the culmination of Jesus first coming, our marriage to him will be the culmination of his second coming (just before he returns to take the world and establish his kingdom). So much, that we will no longer call him Lord, but Husband (Hosea 2:16). We will be one together, married to God himself. And this is what Jesus was working for on the cross: to woo us to be his beloved forever and to be free in him. For him to be the one to fulfill our every heart's desire. Romans 7:4 puts this as:
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may become married to another-to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (NKJV)
The easiest way to begin this intimacy with Jesus is to surrender to him. Give yourself to him as his beloved. Let him come to you as your Lover and let him have you for himself. And let him enjoy you. And as he does, as he woos you, worship him. Peter Kreeft illustrates this in Joy by saying,
In the very act of self-surrender to God there is joy. It is exactly like a woman's voluntary sexual surrender to a man...And when he does, you understand one of the reasons why sex is so different...it is an image of this, of Heaven...Even the tiny foretaste of Heaven that we can all have here on Earth by surrendering to God is as much joyful as the greatest ecstasy sex can give, just as being with your beloved is more joyful than being with her picture.
We have an incredible God, a Lover who will pursue us from one end of the universe to the other all to have our hearts and our entire selves, all to worship him in his love. He is our heart's every desire (Psalm 37:4). Worship him and surrender to him. We all have petty things in our lives that take away our attention from our Heart's Desire, Jesus Christ. Put them aside and instead worship him, surrender to him, and enjoy Jesus' lovely Spirit.
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