I'll Set You as a Seal

"You won't relent until you have it all, my heart is Yours...I'll set You as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm. For there is love that is as strong as death, jealousy demanding as the grave. Many waters cannot quench this love." - Misty Edwards

I have always wondered, "What is the significance of the seal on one's heart and arm?" This song comes from Song of Solomon 8:6-7

"Place me like a seal over your heart,

like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away."

One of the definitions of a seal in the dictionary is a mark, sign, symbol, or the like, serving as visible evidence of something.

1 Corinthians 1:21-22 says,

"Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

So, when I set a seal upon my heart and upon my arm, it is like saying, "I belong to Christ." I am making everyone fully aware that my first true love,. God, is relentlessly pursuing me. The reason why the seal is placed two places is because when I place the seal upon my heart, it is telling God that I am His, and it is a constant thing that I see. But the world does not see my heart visibly, and that is where the seal on my arm comes in. When we set a seal of God's ownership on our arms, it is an outward marking of God's ownership in my life. It tells everyone that I belong to Him, and His love is unquenchable, and it will never go away.

The Word of God

To start off my junior year of college, I wanted this year to be different from last year, especially spiritually. I prepared myself at home for it, and now here at ORU I am doing everything possible to prevent being lukewarm and to be steadfast in my relationship with God. One way God laid on my heart is to change the way I update my facebook status. Now, this may seem small, but lots of small changes add up to a big change. Instead of updating my "friends" on the unnecessary parts of my life that are frivolous, I have decided to write one status update a day, and only write a scripture verse for the day that God has laid on my heart. I also wanted to keep track of those scriptures, so that is what I will be doing on my blog. It will be really good to have 100+ scriptures recorded and it will show my ups and downs through my year without being too wordy and frivolous.

DAY ONE: "Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalms 51:10)

Are you looking?

I am on a 40 day daniel fast with my university....we are fasting meats and sweets (and more for me) through April 10th- which is the last day of a conference being held on campus that weekend called Empowered21.
God has really been "downloading" a lot to me during this time, and I want to share it, and will continue to do so.
One thing that He really empressed upon my heart last week was eyes. There's a big difference between seeing and looking. Seeing is a natural function of the body, while looking is purposeful. This challenged me to ask myself, "Am I just going through life seeing, or am I looking past the outward appearance and into the soul?" When I think about this, I remember this saying,. "The eyes are the windows to the soul."
Matt. 6:22 says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light." Eyes are very distinctable. If you were to see only a person's eyes, you could probably tell who it was. Eye contact is so important, also. I feel like you can get a better understanding of who someone is and what is going on inside when you look into their eyes.
Brandon Heath's song "Give Me Your Eyes" gives us an outlook we should have as followers of Jesus. "Give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see Everything that i keep missing. Give me your love for humanity. Give me your arms for the broken hearted the ones that are far beyond my reach? Give me your heart for the one's forgotten. Give me your eyes so i can see."
Lord, give me your eyes so I can purposefully look past the exteriors into the interiors of souls and hearts. I want to see with your eyes and meet people where they're at. A lot of times we speak one thing but are feeling something totally different. How often do you see someone and you know something isn't right, but you ask them and they say, "I'm fine." God wants to give us that discernment to see past that, if we will only purposefully look for the opportunity.