Progressive Selflessness

At first, many of us respond to our Lord as the bride responded in Song of Solomon 2:16 where she said, “My beloved is mine and I am his. He feedeth among the lilies.” There was a sense of her possessing Christ, a sense of her personal pleasure as she held onto Him. But after a period of time, in Song of Solomon 6:3, she says something entirely different; “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”

It is a fact that we must continue to grown in our relationship to possess Him. First, he is mine. Then, after receiving the teaching of the Word of God and applying categorical doctrine relating to the details of life, we say “I am His.” What does that mean? This is a picture of progressive selflessness as we grow in our relationship with the Lord. We progress in our relationship with the lord. We progress in our availability to His will and purpose. We become available to His thoughts, through doctrine. Notice, in Song of Solomon 7:10, the bride says, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.” Oh, how beautiful is the growth of her Christian experience! Now, it was her Lord’s personal pleasure that became her concern. After all, Revelation 4:11 says. “For his pleasure are we created.” “There are pleasures at his right hand forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).