God’s love is illogical. Paul states that it “transcends our understanding” (Ephesians 3:19 TPT). We can only know how God feels about us by revelation that comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must make it plain to our wounded souls: his love never fails. We are all fallen image-bearers, people who have marred the beauty of his image within us. We are destined for the throne yet made from dust, reaching for the sky yet bowing down in shame. All of us must discover that apart from him our lives are earthbound and futile.

We discover in the book of Song of Songs the power of affirming words that are spoken into our destiny. A story of walking in intimacy and tenderness with Jesus Christ. You are the one who is loved by Jesus in this story. Be careful not to miss that and assume the lyrics of this love song are for someone else, somehow excluding you. You are the Shulamite, while Jesus is the King.

The day will come in your sacred journey when you feel like your “sin is showing.” The Shulamite has begun to recognize this, as she exclaims, “Please don’t stare in scorn because of my dark and sinful ways” (Song of Songs 1:6 TPT). Our natural inheritance in Adam left us with a darkened soul. How amazing it is that God takes this maiden and prepares her to be a glorious bride, transforming her by his tender love. It is time for an identity transplant to occur within her heart. Go ahead and ask Jesus how he sees you. I dare you.

The Shulamite is ashamed at the discovery of her defects. She now realizes that others are aware of them too. She pleads, “Please, don’t look at what’s wrong with me. You might not like what you see.” Self-conscious about her sin, and feeling like everyone is looking at her, she is miserable. What she truly wanted was to be presentable, to look good in the eyes of others.

Sound familiar? Have you ever felt like your “sin” is showing? When God exposes us as we are, it is proof that we are growing in our journey. But be careful not to let shame cause you to be overly introspective and constantly analyzing how you seem to others. You were not meant to spend a lifetime with guilt as your companion. Jesus is to be your companion.

Jesus lives in you and will make your life into a radiant partner who will be at his side forever. Is this how you see yourself? Let Jesus speak right into your shame, your busyness, and your rejection. Hear him tell you how fair you are to him. Cherish his love.

We often look for mental answers, desiring to figure it all out, but God simply wants to touch our hearts with his fiery love. Our King wants us to know him in our heart, with the fullness of our passion. Love created us out of love, to share love with us.

But what about our relationships with others? Love will overcome their rejection and their misunderstanding of our sacred journey too:

“My angry brothers quarreled with me and appointed me guardian of their ministry vineyards, yet I’ve not guarded my vineyard within.”

Song of Songs 1:6 TPT

The crisis of rejection has come to the Shulamite through the angry words of others. There will be a time when our zeal for the Father’s house will provoke others to jealousy.

“Even my own brothers, those of my family, act as though they don’t want anything to do with me. My love for you has my heart on fire! My passion for your house consumes me! Nothing will turn me away, even though I endure all the insults of those who insult you.”

Psalm 69:8–9 TPT

Often our zeal is without maturity, and we do silly things that cause others to reject us—yet even this is a test. The angry brothers take full advantage of her zeal and fervency. They overwork her in their fields. She becomes the keeper of their vineyards while her own vineyard is overgrown with weeds. She has not had time to make herself desirable for her Lover…she has been busy and overburdened with everyone’s expectations. Has that been happening to you?

She kept other vineyards, but did not keep her own vineyard (heart). Our first responsibility before God is our own personal walk with Jesus, guarding and protecting and nourishing our own heart. Originally, what the Shulamite wanted most were the kisses of God’s Word. However, as time went by, the weeds of spiritual coldness, sin, and shame choked her vineyard (garden of her heart). Taking care of her own vineyard means nurturing her personal communion with God and doing his will.

Taking responsibilities apart from God’s grace is a recipe for burnout. Overworked laborers in God’s vineyard will be discouraged, and sometimes even quit. Weariness takes our joy and makes us feel guilty that we are not doing more for God. All of this becomes a religious yoke, which in time proves to be too heavy on our shoulders. However, Jesus is easy to please. he is coupled to us—united to us in the yoke of love. When we find our identity in what we do for God, instead of intimacy with Christ, we can lose our vision.

The vineyard of others drained the Shulamite’s spiritual life, leaving her own inner life in God neglected. Your life in the Spirit is a vineyard, a garden for the Lord. To neglect your own vineyard is to abandon your call to pursue Jesus with an undistracted love. Cultivating the heart is a daily responsibility that must be taken seriously.

It is the strategy of the Devil to sidetrack you from your pure devotion to God. If he can keep you exhausted and overloaded with a religious yoke, he knows that in time your life of intimacy with Jesus will suffer. It is easy to blame the angry brothers, but truly we are the ones who have grown cold.

Others will try to tell you that you can’t afford to take the time to be alone with God. They may even misunderstand that you are being drawn into a life of passionate pursuit of God; yet all of this only refines our motives. The day will come when our own vineyard (inner life) will be refreshing and our labors for God will not be to impress people but will be from the overflow of his life in us. He will become our very great reward.

“Won’t you tell me, lover of my soul, where do you feed your flock? Where do you lead your beloved ones to rest in the heat of the day?”

Song of Songs 1:7 TPT

“Won’t you tell me, lover of my soul…” The Shulamite realizes now that it is not the church or others she primarily loves; it is him whom she loves. “Where do you lead your beloved ones to rest in the heat of the day?” In the darkness of her experience, she wants to know where he leads his flock at noon when the sun is the brightest. The Shulamite longs to be in the midday brightness with her Shepherd. She is saying, “Bring me into your midday light of revelation, untroubled by darkness. Take me there. I am weary with doing stuff (keeping vineyards), but now I want to rest in your shadow. Where do you rest your sheep? Take me there.”

The exquisite love of Jesus is a fountain that will never dry up. You can drink your fill, and you can drink it repeatedly.

“Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”

Ephesians 3:19 TPT

This is where Jesus rests his flock at midday, at his fountain of delight. Now she sees this King as a Shepherd—a gentle, satisfying Shepherd.

Shepherd. What a fitting name for Jesus: “Yahweh is my best friend and my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1 TPT). He will lead his flock into the perfect pasture, the green pasture where we will grow the most. The Shulamite is ready to feed her own soul with him.

“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.”

Matthew 11:28–29 TPT

She acknowledges, “Why should I seek others when I must have You?”

“Why should I be like a veiled woman as I wander among the flocks of your shepherds?”

Song of Songs 1:7 TPT

You and I must have an unveiled face before the Lord. Shame is a veil that will keep us from seeing him clearly. When we are ashamed, our gaze is on our self, our failures, our weaknesses. It is time to lift the veil and gaze on him undistracted. Only the Shepherd can remove the veil of shame from the human heart. Jesus does not want us to give up and give in to a spiritually dull life in God. He does not want us to write ourselves off as hopeless hypocrites.

The Shepherd-King says to the Shulamite:

“Listen, my radiant one—if you ever lose sight of me, just follow in my footsteps where I lead my lovers. Come with your burdens and cares. Come to the place near the sanctuary of my shepherds.”

Song of Songs 1:8 TPT

The tender Shepherd is compassionate in her weakness. He calls the immature maiden his “radiant one.” His answer shocks many people who read these words, even today. We would expect a rebuke to be given here. He knows our garden isn’t being kept and that we serve him at a distance; however, we are still radiant to him. He calls us radiant even in the midst of our disorientation and failure. We may despise ourselves, but we are radiant to him.

Jesus does not just see the sinful struggle that we have in our lives; he sees the seeking heart. He does not define us by the unkempt vineyard we display, but by the budding virtues yet to grow into fullness. How kind is our Shepherd!

It is so important we know that we are lovely in his sight. The power of hope is released when we drink of these words. Knowing we are loved while unworthy builds a fortress around our own souls. Doubt, fear, and accusation cannot take root in us.

Pray this prayer today: “Lord God, you know everything there is to know about me. Yet you still love me with endless love. I want my heart to soak in your words today, ‘Listen, My radiant one.’ Continue your work in my heart until radiance shines through my doubts and my discouragement. I take your words as my life and my strength. In Jesus’s name I pray, amen.”

The above was adapted from The Sacred Journey, a devotional commentary that takes you verse-by-verse through the book of Song of Songs, helping lead every hungry soul to discover God’s fiery heart of love.