7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. Song of Songs 4:7 (KJV)
I am no different than any of you. I struggle at times to maintain that all-important eternal focus, that is, to abide in Christ no matter what, to continue to take up my cross and follow my Lord in the midst of all-consuming distractions, et cetera. I am preparing to retire. The pressures are enormous both at my current job and also on the home front to get our finances in order so we can “do it.”….
When the Covid stuff first started I stood up to some professing Christians who panicked and caused others to do so as well as I asked them, “Where is your faith?” Then as we struggled this very day with financial issues and insurance issues and Medicare issues and VA issues it was as if my wife and I were being told by the powers that be that we were no longer worth anything and were being tossed on the ash heap. It was at that moment that I remembered what I told you and everyone else during that time of “Pandemic” issues about keeping our eyes on Christ and our presence at the throne of grace. This is no different. Aren’t we still our Lord’s? Aren’t we still part of His Kingdom and He will provide for all our needs? Notice I did not say all our desires. Just how does our God see those of us who are His?
The following devotional is from Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning for December 2nd.
C. H. Spurgeon
“Thou art all fair, my love.”—Song of Solomon 4:7.
THE Lord’s admiration of His Church is very a wonderful, and His description of her beauty is very glowing. She is not merely fair, but “all fair.” He views her in Himself, washed in His sin-atoning blood and clothed in His meritorious righteousness, and He considers her to be full of comeliness and beauty. No wonder that such is the case, since it is but His own perfect excellency that He admires; for the holiness, glory, and perfection of His Church are His own glorious garments on the back of His own well-beloved spouse. She is not simply pure, or well-proportioned; she is positively lovely and fair! She has actual merit! Her deformities of sin are removed; but more, she has through her Lord obtained a meritorious righteousness by which an actual beauty is conferred upon her. Believers have a positive righteousness given to them when they become “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6). Nor is the Church barely lovely, she is superlatively so. Her Lord styles her “Thou fairest among women.” She has a real worth and excellence which cannot be rivalled by all the nobility and royalty of the world. If Jesus could exchange His elect bride for all the queens and empresses of earth, or even for the angels in heaven, He would not, for He puts her first and foremost—”fairest among women.” Like the moon she far outshines the stars. Nor is this an opinion which He is ashamed of, for He invites all men to hear it. He sets a “behold” before it, a special note of exclamation, inviting and arresting attention. “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair” (Song of Sol. 4:1). His opinion He publishes abroad even now, and one day from the throne of His glory He will avow the truth of it before the assembled universe. “Come, ye blessed of my Father” (Matt. 25:34), will be His solemn affirmation of the loveliness of His elect.
Soli Deo Gloria!