Page 146 - Radical Love by Linda Robinson_FEB2025

RADICAL LOVE

“My beloved, everything that the most advanced of God’s people know

now should excite in them an insatiable thirst for more.”

May we be the generation of those who seek His face.

In Chapter 3, we see the consequences of her disobedience and
reluctance to follow. She is devastated because the Lord breaks open

the box she has put Him in and appears to withdraw from her. There is

a saying: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”—and verses 1–3 of
Chapter 3 are an excellent illustration of this.

The Shulamite is beside herself and now bemoans the fact that she has
let her Bridegroom-King go. Notice how verse 1 describes her as

tossing and turning on her bed in travail. Travail is prayer. She has
obviously felt His departure deeply and has been praying fervently for

Him to return to her. This whole scenario has, of course, been

orchestrated by the Bridegroom-King Himself. Even when we do not
feel or perceive God’s presence, He is still there (see Psalm 139:7–11;

Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).

What the Shulamite is perceiving as a season of dryness is, in fact, the

Lord at work in her—to birth increased desire and passion for Himself.

In verse 2, we see her dogged determination to find Him again. She
goes out looking, and verse 3 refers to her enquiring of the leaders

(overseers) of the local fellowships in her vicinity. She asks them if
they have found Him, but before they answer, the Lord appears.

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