20-20 Blog

Scripture Focus:

Ezekiel 16:8 “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD.

Observation:

I love how God uses the picture of marriage to show his love for his people and how we should love him back. In this case, it’s an unequal marriage. We come to naked and needy, and he covers our nakedness and enters into a covenant with us.

The verses that follow tell how God lavished his favor and riches on his beloved, but she trusted in her own beauty and played the harlot.

Application:

God has done so much for me! May I be like a good and faithful wife to him, all the days of my life. I believe God wants intimacy with each of his children, for he is our husband.

Prayer:

Father God, thank you for loving me when I was poor and needy. Thank you for lavishing your goodness upon me.

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Scripture Focus:

Song of Solomon 4:16 Awake, O north wind,
And come, O south!
Blow upon my garden,
That its spices may flow out.
Let my beloved come to his garden
And eat its pleasant fruits.

Observation:

It’s always so refreshing to read the Song of Solomon because the Beloved and the Shulamite model a rare kind of love—one where the words spoken to each other and to others about each other are uplifting and life-giving. So many times I hear words from married couples that tear each other down, and it is so rare (with the exception of my dear husband) to actually hear a married couple speak words of praise and adoration about each other.

In the verse I picked from today’s reading I loved the imagery of the Shulamite’s intimate life being a garden filled with precious spices and pleasant fruit. She refers to this garden as “my garden” and “his garden.” It is a part of her she shares with her beloved. The imagery suggests that she tends this garden to make sure it is filled with pleasant fruits.

Application:

I have a choice to tend my garden and fill it with pleasant fruit or to neglect it and have little to offer my beloved. My garden should be a place he longs to come, a place he finds pleasant and satisfying.

Two other thoughts: my intimate garden is only to be shared with my husband and no other, and I must make time to share this part of me with my husband. A garden is to be enjoyed and savored, not neglected.

Prayer:

Father God, I’ve been refreshed by your Word today and given a fresh vision of what it means to be in the covenant relationship called marriage. May my beloved delight in my garden—his garden—and find only pleasant fruit!

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