Devotional
Date Published: 09-26-2024
Publisher: Victory Now Consulting
Have you ever felt overwhelmed, as a Christ follower? Have you blamed
yourself for not praying hard enough, fasting more, serving harder? Are you
in a season of life where you long for more of the Lord but you just cannot
seem to find the time or the energy? This Devotional of Song of Songs was
written for you. Over the next 40 days you will experience breakthrough into
a deeper level of intimacy in your relationship with God. I refer to God as
Papa. Along these pages you will be challenged by invitation after
invitation to know and be known by The King of love.
About the Author
Amy Buchanan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Northern California providing Christian Counseling to women. Through consulting, Amy is able to provide non-therapeutic care, strategy, and insights that have proven successful with women, couples, and other medical professionals.
After graduating in 2006 with a Masters in Social Work, Amy began working with older youth and supporting families through Child Protective Services. She has worked with inmates in CDCR institutions in Northern California. From there, she was able to serve her community as a clinical social worker within her local hospital. There, Amy was able to assist the overwhelmed caretakers who had limited resources. Today she loves providing support to women and couples that need to reconcile themselves back to God, to themselves, and to their families.
Amy’s life message, that she feels is needed for women at this time, is LOVE YOURSELF as much as you love others! This important Kingdom principal can be overlooked within church culture and even in the culture of family. As women, we tend to nurture and think of others first, but there must be a balance—a guilt- and shame-free balance.
Having raised five children, two are children of love through her marriage of 29 years. Much personal experience has been gained to offer support to couples with blended families. Amy currently has three grandchildren with one more on the way. She enjoys spending time with God, her family, and friends, and she loves being outdoors and in nature as her schedule allows. To learn more, visit Victorycounseling.com,
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Day 1: Let Him
The
Shulamite: Let him (her invitation, her surrender) smother me with
kisses—his Spirit-kiss divine. So kind are your caresses, I drink them in like
the sweetest wine! Your presence releases a fragrance so pleasing—over and over
poured out. For your lovely name is “Flowing Oil.” No wonder the brides-to-be
adore you. Draw me into your heart. We will run away together into the Kings
cloud-filled chamber.
The
Chorus of Friends: We will remember your love, rejoicing and delighting in
you, celebrating your every kiss as better than wine. No wonder righteousness
adores you!
The
Shulamite: Jerusalem maidens, in the twilight darkness I know I am so
unworthy—so in need. (Song of Songs 1:1–5a)
In your
faith journey with God, you may find yourself burnt out from serving and
hearing the same old sermon. Devotion turns into an empty routine—well, this
is, after all, what is expected of me. Exhausted from pouring out, you long
for a touch, for time away from the pressures and stress—time away from your
circumstances, your toil, your suffering, your pain. You wonder, “Is this
religious duty or a relationship? Does God really love me? Does He care? Does
He see me? Is He even listening? I’m doing all the things I’m supposed to be
doing—church attendance, tithing, yada, yada—so why do I feel so crunchy,
salty, tired? What’s missing?”
Maybe you
remember when you were first saved and accepted Him into your heart. You felt
so free, so alive, so loved. I know I did. I felt a thousand invisible bricks
fall from me. I love how this book of Songs starts out with a representation of
this exact concept. Here we find the Shulamite woman recollecting on her
once-upon-a-time relationship with the Lord. As she recants what His love is
like, her friends chime in and encourage her with their recollections as well.
She tells her friends how she is so over it, so burnt out, so sick and tired of
being sick and tired. I can hear her now. “Why am I going around this same
mountain again?”
“I feel as
dark and dry as the dessert tents of the wandering nomads” (Song of Songs
1:5c). She had lost herself. Maybe she was in a season in life and realized,
“This is not what I signed up for. This is not what I was expecting or what I
had planned.” Maybe she had broken dreams, broken expectations. Was she
depressed, anxious, fearful? She was willing to recognize her need, her
longing. Her reminiscing was where we find her. Let Him. She recalls His
kindness, His Spirit kisses, and His presence. She has known intimacy with
Jesus.
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