Bad and Beloved

Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. How sexually impure! Yet God also named him Jedidiah (Beloved of the Lord/2 Samuel 12:25). God knew Solomon's total person and everything he would ever do in his life before he did it, and yet He still named him Beloved of the Lord.

God sees the best in believers. He doesn't want us to get entangled in sexual sin or any other sin, but sin cannot erase His high opinion of us, His passionate love for us.

God is Holy. Whatever comes to your mind when you hear the word "holy" with God it is not harshness, coldness or ugliness. God is immeasurably, totally, ecstatically in love with His people. He doesn't want us to begin or to try to maintain our relationship with Him by attempting to follow a bunch of rules in our own strength. God wants us to continuously receive Him in love, and let His love flow in us motivating and empowering us to behave in ways that please Him. We do things for people we love that we would never do for anyone else.

Loving God is a consuming relationship. The Apostle Paul found his relationship with God so consuming, that he chose not to marry and to recommend singleness for others. Yet he also said that marriage is good and spouses should love each other intensely. It's difficult to love God and to love a spouse properly and passionately, but it can be done with God's leading if He has designed us for marriage.

One spouse is more than enough. Only so many hours in a day exist to cherish a spouse and fulfill all our responsibilities. Solomon attempted marital relations with 1,000 women! Some spouses may not have even received so much as a hello daily, weekly or even for longer stretches of time. This is not the intimacy of marriage that is described in Ephesians 5:33 Amplified Bible which says, "However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]."

God wants the best for us as singles or married people. He has a certain way of meeting our needs and many of our wants in relationships. Practice meditating on the love of God. Enjoy your relationship with God. Real love comes with real satisfaction in Him and others. Solomon is beloved of the Lord as are are all His people. In what ways are you beloved of God?