In Response to a discussion about Mother Teresa

On my friend Dawn's blog we have had a small discussion about the news about Mother Teresa. It made me think of these three devotions I have copied from Forerunner Meditiations




Song of Songs 2:10
My lover spoke to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, ad come with me.”

He is calling her to come away with Him, to leap and skip over the mountains. Jesus wants His Bride to agree and join with Him in all of His doings. He is asking her to step out of her comfort zone and leave her place of familiarity to partner with Him.
What He is calling her to do is frightening and uncertain to her. It is a step that will force her to trust and obey Him completely. She feels as if she doesn’t like the risks of walking by faith. She does not want to go to the high places because she is afraid of the mountains.
Faith is the way of the Kingdom. God, in His infinite wisdom, has ordained a Kingdom that operates by absolute confidence in the invisible things of God (2 Cor. 5:7,4:18). The way of faith is a mysterious way to operate a Kingdom; however, God, who is perfect in knowledge, desires a Bride for His Son who is willing to take His hand with confidence and partner with Him in all His decisions. The foundation of the Kingdom must be founded on confidence in God. We honor our Lord when we have confidence in His integrity, even though we can’t feel or see anything. It reflects devotion and commitment, much more than seeing and feeling does.
The young Bride did not yet want to be a warrior. She wanted to sit under the shade tree for the rest of her life and enjoy loving and worshipping Jesus. She did no want to war against darkness, yet God wants a worshipping, warring Bride. He wants us to both love and fight, because He is a warrior and He is a lover (Ps. 62:11-12)

My lover is mine and I am His; He browses among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills. Song of Songs 2:16-17

Now sincere love is expressed. The Bride declares that she belongs only to Jesus. She is proclaiming with confidence that she has not lost her place in the heart of God. She knows that Jesus is still hers, and that she belongs to Him. She is not just loved and cherished by Christ, but she belongs solely to Him and no other.
This is the reality that she is truly starting to accept. She is allowing herself to take her place as the Bride of Christ and profess that she is His. She is a lover of God, and God loves her even in her weaknesses. She is committed and sincere even if she is not yet fully victorious or mature.
However, despite her beginning to understand this truth, she still chooses not to follow Him over the mountains. She bids Him to go on without her. She is refusing to obey Him, not because she is rebellious or because she is a hopeless hypocrite, but because she is spiritually immature.

It is dark until the day breaks and brings new light. The time when day breaks is the time when light or maturity becomes present. She is telling Him that she wants His help to conquer these areas in her heart so she can go on to the mountains with Him. She doesn’t want to go to the mountains until the light of day comes and shadows , or the gray areas, are gone.

She is telling Him that she still has unbelief in her heart, but she wants His light to come and take it away. She says, “God, unless there is more light and I am more mature, You are going to have to turn and go on without me. I cannot rise until the shadows have fled.”

This happens to many Christians during their spiritual journey. They decline when Christ asks them to partner with Him, and because of this, they feel as if they are hopeless hypocrites. They doubt their sincerity towards Christ, and they wonder if they even love Him the way that they thought they did. Then they begin to run away from the things of God instead of toward the things of God.

This is what Satan wants the beloved to do. He wants her mistakes to conquer her instead of causing her to run to God for help. Mistakes do not disqualify you from being with Christ; they qualify you to run to Christ. This does not mean you should try to sin and make mistakes, but it does mean that even if you slip and fall in a time of weakness, you should get right back up and run back to the love Christ.

Ask Christ to shine the light of His countenance down upon your life so the shadows of fear and doubt would flee and the gray areas of immaturity would become as light. Ask Him to give you grace that allows you to run to Him in times of struggle.

By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought Him, but did not find Him SOS 3:1

She told Him to go to the mountain without her, and now His manifest presence in her life is gone. He is still with her, but she cannot feel His immediate presence with her the way she did before.

It is a new experience for her to seek after Him and not find Him. This was her own doing, however, because she chose not to obey His biddings to join with Him. She stayed behind her wall of isolation praying on her bed (her place of rest and comfort). She preferred to sit under the shade tree and eat grapes and raisin cakes instead of following Him.

Because He loves her too much to leave her in a position of disobedience, Jesus refuses to come to her until she obeys Him. He is now absent from her presence, and she is alone. She was sincere in her love and affections for Him, but she is not ready to give up her place of comfort to enter into new levels of partnership.

This love will eventually drive her to pursue Him passionately, but unless she is left without His presence, she will have no reason to leave the security of her bed. She may feel alone and forgotten, but He continues to woo her to come away with Him. Just because His presences is not manifest doesn’t mean He is not beckoning her to arise. Rather, the lack of His Spirit near her will eventually drive her to pursue the One she loves.

This is the bridegrooms pure divine strategy to stir up His Bride. He wants her to discover for herself that the only safe and perfect place is in partnership with Him. Wherever He goes, no matter where He goes, this is where His Bride should be. We should be completely dependant on Him, then He will hide Himself for a time until we are ready to agree with His decisions.

Seek the Lord, but don’t just seek Him like you did in other seasons of you life. Seek Him in the night seasons as well as the day, when you feel His presence and when you do not. Isaiah 64:7 says, “Is there anyone who calls upon God’s name, who stirs Himself up to take hold of God?” There is a time to stir yourself up to take hold of God because sometimes God does hide His face until we seek Him. However, He promises that if you seek Him with all of your heart, you will find Him He will be found by you.