{"id":9534,"date":"2013-02-18T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T05:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=9534"},"modified":"2013-02-17T23:38:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T04:38:01","slug":"captivating-chapter-7-romanced-longing-for-romance-pgs-111-113","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/18\/captivating-chapter-7-romanced-longing-for-romance-pgs-111-113\/","title":{"rendered":"Captivating: Chapter 7 Romanced – Longing for Romance (pp 111-113)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeremiah31_3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I remember the first time that I heard the above words some few years ago.\u00a0 My sister, who was staying with me at the time, had just gone to visit my parents in another city.\u00a0 I felt so alone that evening and I decided to listen to music in order to drown out\u00a0the silence that was in the house.\u00a0 I had just bought a new praise and worship CD which contained\u00a0a song based on Jeremiah 31:3. \u201cI have loved with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with my loving kindness<\/strong>.\u201d The song was so overwhelming; and I felt like God was speaking to me directly.\u00a0 God LOVES me with an everlasting love.\u00a0 I can\u2019t express the exact feelings that I felt then but every fiber of my body felt that love.\u00a0 I was so in awe of God for reaching out to me and telling me how much He loves me through that song.\u00a0 My loneliness was replaced with God\u2019s presence; it was an experience that I will never forget.<\/p>\n

Each one of us wants to feel loved and to be romanced; we want to know that we are special to someone.\u00a0 There is something about love that changes the way we feel and look at ourselves.\u00a0 When I am first in love with someone I see things differently…I tend to smile at anything…what could easily annoy me does not bother me at all…the way I walk and carry myself…the time I take to look beautiful…happiness bubbles from inside my heart waiting to burst.\u00a0 The day dreaming and\u00a0secret messages that are shared with my loved one all seem to make my world beautiful—like I am on top of the world and nothing can touch me.\u00a0 I feel special, worthy, and beautiful!<\/p>\n

I have come to the understanding that I don’t need to wait for a man to feel special, worthy and beautiful every day because there is Someone who already makes me feel these things and so much more.\u00a0 His love for me is eternal.\u00a0 His romance is for eternity.\u00a0 The romance that the Lover of our Soul, Jesus, has for us.\u00a0 This romance is ours to experience every day.\u00a0 It began long before we were born. \u201cBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you<\/strong>\u201d (Jeremiah 1:5).\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s how much God knows (and loves) you and me.\u00a0 He pursued us way before we came to be and He will never stop.\u00a0 Like the great lover that He is, He woo’s us with everything that He has created: the flowers and vegetation, the beautiful sunset, the blue skies, the glorious mountains, the enormous lakes and oceans.\u00a0 Everywhere we look, we are enchanted by the beautiful things that He has made for us to enjoy.<\/p>\n

I always wondered why the Song of Solomon was in the Bible until I realized that it was a love message from God to us.\u00a0 God is so romantic that He dedicated a whole book for romance.\u00a0 Wow, that\u2019s something not to be taken for granted.\u00a0 This book beats all the romance novels that you and I have read by far.\u00a0 The way the writer uses words to describe different animals to reflect the beauty of a woman is intriguing.\u00a0 The love that is shared between the two lovers is mesmerizing.\u00a0 I hope you find some time to read this book\u00a0and embrace its uniqueness, and\u00a0experience the romantic side of God.<\/p>\n

Stasi Eldredge writes, \u201cGod longs to bring this into your life Himself. He wants you to move beyond the childlike ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’\u00a0 He wants to heal us through His love to become mature women who actually know Him<\/span><\/strong><\/em>. He wants us to experience verses like, “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her<\/strong>” (Hosea 2:14). And “You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride<\/strong>” (Song of Solomon 4:9). Our hearts are desperate for this. What would it be like to experience for yourself that the truest thing about His heart toward yours is not disappointment or disapproval but deep, fiery, passionate love? This is, after all, what a woman was made for.\u201d (pg 113)<\/p>\n

Jesus is our Bridegroom and we are His Bride.\u00a0 I pray that you will accept Him to romance you the way your feminine heart needs because YOU ARE HIS DARLING!<\/b>\u00a0 \u201cHow beautiful you are, my darling<\/b>\u201d (Song of Solomon 1:15).<\/p>\n

Be Blessed,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jackie<\/p>\n

________________<\/p>\n

LET\u2019S PRAY:<\/b><\/p>\n

Lord, how wonderful it is to know just how much You love us.\u00a0 You loved us even before we came to be, and You are coming to take us with You as Your bride.\u00a0 May we experience this romance with You every day. \u00a0In Jesus’ Name, Amen.<\/p>\n

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:<\/b><\/p>\n

How comfortable are you with the idea of Jesus being your \u201cBridegroom\u201d and you being His Beloved?\u00a0 Is this a relatively new\u00a0category for you to think about\u00a0in your relationship with Him?<\/p>\n

\u00a0_______________<\/p>\n

If you are interested in sending Jackie a private message in regards to this blog, please email her at: Jackie@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember the first time that I heard the above words some few years ago.\u00a0 My sister, who was staying with me at the time, had just gone to visit my parents in another city.\u00a0 I felt so alone that evening and I decided to listen to music in order to drown out\u00a0the silence that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":9554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[169,1251,1810,436,1744,544,1812,552,554,571,620,907,1813,1814,1009],"class_list":["post-9534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-singles","tag-bridegroom","tag-captivatingunveiling-the-mystery-of-a-womans-soul","tag-girlfriends-coffe-hour","tag-god","tag-hosea-214","tag-jackie-chingawale","tag-jeremiah-15","tag-jeremiah-313","tag-jesus","tag-john-eldredge","tag-love","tag-romance","tag-song-of-solomon-115","tag-song-of-solomon-49","tag-stasi-eldredge","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Jeremiah31_3.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2tM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9534"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9564,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions\/9564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}