Lilies Among Thorns is a three-part study for you to work on individually. The purpose is to focus on "His Place in Your Life," "His Protection for Your Life," and "His Promise."

"Lilies Among Thorns" Part Two spoke to God’s protection in our lives even when the aggravations and annoyances of this life can be a nuisance. Together, we also learned more about His tender love and care for us in spite of them.

We also understand that God will never leave us in those trial-ridden briar patches forever. He provides more than just spiritual band-aids; He delivers healing, and in the healing process pours his soothing balm of Gilead over us, promises that are from everlasting to everlasting.

In Part Three we examine some of those assurances God has. We’ll leave the "thorny" bushes of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and head for the throne room of God to peek at a few. I am ready to focus on His Promises and the joy of believing in them.

A daily review of scripture reminds us that we are not exempt from those rips and tears of the briars, because Satan still has not gone away. However, the Lord Jesus (that day on the cross) made it impossible for the enemy to have victory over any of us as Christians. I seize those words spoken by our Lord in John’s Gospel. I expect you are holding on to verses similar to this as well.

"These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 KJV

Although Eve (the first lady of the garden) muddled God’s original process soon after the creation, the Lord hurried in with His broom and briskly swept away the dust of activated sin. He does the same with us when we turn our lives over to him. (Is God still looking for you? He is well aware of exactly where you are anyway. If you have not yet released your life to Him, now is an excellent time.)

God does not leave his broom in the broom closet to gather dormant dust. As long as we are here on this earth, our ability to transgress is alive and well, whether in deeds or thoughts. I am just thankful the Lord will deliver us, and forgive us the moment we ask. I oftentimes believe I am in need of God’s high-powered vacuum cleaner!

I am well acquainted with those deep-rooted weeds that multiply rapidly in the yard. (I have many.) I know my ranch animals will not change the smelly straw bedding in their sleeping quarters. Someone has to get in there with that rake. (I am on straw duty most of the time.) Young and Old Mothers alike will remember how their knuckles turned white from holding on to the side-rails on their hospital beds during childbirth. Some things just do not go away. (Eve started that thorn, you might recall.) And of course, we are all reminded daily of those physical problems that tear us down. (Thorns...thorns...thorns)

In comparing our lives with the Shulamite maiden (lily) in the Song of Solomon, the Lord kindly looks beyond our weaknesses, our troubles, our failings and reminds us that we are arrayed much more finely than Solomon in all his glory! (See Matthew 6:29). In the midst of our own many hassles, our Shepherd also looks down, smiles gently, and blows His Holy Spirit wind on our Bibles causing the pages to fly open to the book of Hebrews. "I am with you," He says. Then He whispers in our perceptive ears and says, "Read again about my love for you in Song of Solomon."

"....I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Hebrews 13:5 KJV
"As the lily among thorns (or trials), so is my love among the daughters"
Song of Solomon 2:2 KJV

I read in a lovely website that, ¹"Lilies are the oldest recorded flower and we have learned much about nurturing this ancient beauty." Furthermore, lilies are never boring, just as we are by no means uninspiring to the Father. Lilies also mix well with other flowers as long as they stay protected, just as God enjoys funneling us out into the Christian world for much-needed fellowship. Is it any wonder why He would not see fit to compare us with the lily? He loves us all very much. We are a source of pleasure to our Heavenly Father.

His "Seeds" of Promise

Confidence

• Our Beloved Savior appeared the first time over 2000 years ago, and we know he is coming back for us! What better hope, and what better promise do we have, than to wait for him with EXPECTANCY!
  

  "Listen! My beloved! Behold, he is coming, Climbing on the mountains, Leaping on the hills!" Song of Solomon 2:8 NASB

• If it were possible that the Shulamite maiden (the lily bride) was troubled, when she saw her beloved coming, it gave her reason no more to be anxious! We, too have no reason to be uneasy. Our Lord is coming again!
  

  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:1-3 NKJV

Answers to our Prayers

• When He calls, as the Beloved did so with the Shulamite maiden, He patiently waits for an answer. She responded by calling back, a representation of reaching up in prayer. How do we respond when He calls us?
  

  "O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice..." Song of Solomon 2:14 a

• Whatever we ask in faith believing He will do, according to His perfect will for our lives.
  

  "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." 1 John 5:14, 15 NKJV

Faith and Direction

• Although they rejected Him in the beginning, we responded to His first arrival in Bethlehem. We became new creatures in Christ Jesus, when we turned our lives over to Him. The former things of our lives passed away, and He began making us beautiful in His sight – that ongoing process -- as we allow him to change us for his glory.
  

  "My beloved responded and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along." Song of Solomon 2:10 NASB

• When we identify with and have faith in whom we believe, He is not that difficult to follow.
  

  "I am my beloved’s and his desire is toward me." Song of Solomon 7:10

• It is vital that we do not falter in that faith.
  

  "And where I go you know, and the way you know." John 14:4 NKJV

• Our principle faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our foundation and the source of our eternal life.
  

  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

Forgiveness and Acceptance

• Jesus is our true vine, and we, as His church, were grafted in by spiritual adoption.
  

  "The time has arrived for pruning the vines" Song of Solomon 2:13 NASB

• Have we begun bearing our own spiritual fruit yet? (see Galatians 5:22-25)
  

  "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15:2 NKJV

Reassurance

• Life’s trials, pains, storms will cease; our plaguing misdeeds of the past and even of today, what God knows we will do when tomorrow arrives, all were already forgiven at Calvary when Jesus died on the cross and took them upon Himself.
  

  "For behold, the winter is past, The rains are over and gone. The season of singing has come" Song of Solomon 2:11 NASB

• He is preparing a dream estate for each one of us (a manor house), and an abundant life in the spirit here on earth, while we wait for construction to be complete.
  

  "In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3 KJV

• God encourages us, sustains us, holds us up, and gives us the support that no one here on earth could or would provide, but do we trust in this reassuring promise?
  

  "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; the ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19 KJV

Hope, Peace and Freedom from fear

• The time has come for us to begin bearing that fruit of God’s spirit ... His love (made up of joy, peace...) The time has come for us to live abundant lives in Him. The time has come for us to rejoice in our Lord; Even Christians spend too much time downcast and forget that He has offered us that peace that passes all understanding, a peace of that the world has no concept.
  

  "The flowers have already appeared in the land; And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land." Song of Solomon 2:12 NASB

• God’s promise of peace to us leaves a legacy of hope and freedom that helps us get by each day.
  

  "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." John 14:27 KJV

Passion and Eagerness

• We but need to focus our eyes on the nation Israel to see the closeness of when our Lord will return. The Rapture of the Church is immanent, and only the Father knows the day and the hour in which He will come to meet us in the clouds. The prophetic fig tree here represents that nation of God’s chosen. God will complete His work with his chosen ones after the church age is complete and the nation Israel comes to the place of accepting Christ as their Messiah.
  

  "The fig tree has ripened its figs, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance." Song of Solomon 2:14 NASB

• God also shows in the 24th Chapter of Matthew how near we are to the actual second coming of Christ, which deals specifically with the nation Israel.
  

  "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." Matthew 24:32, 33 KJV (See Luke 21:29; Mark 13:28)

Eyes Enlightened / Spiritual Recall

• Let us keep our eyes upward and be standing by when the trumpet sounds. The Word says, "Occupy till He comes," just keep your fine linen gown ready for that wedding day and the marriage feast of the Lamb.
  

  "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." John 14:19 KJV

  
  

  "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along!" Song of Solomon 2:10-13 NASB

Patience, Help, Comfort

• Do you have the fortitude to wait on the Lord for help and comfort?
  

  "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." John 14:16-18 KJV

• His Balm in Gilead just waits to be opened and poured forth on every one of us, and the promises I have mentioned above, and many more are ours for the asking. What an indescribable joy and satisfaction we can have in believing for each one of them.

  The Promise of His Coming is our greatest assurance that we will soon be with our Lord when He meets us in the clouds. Be listening closely so you will know His voice when He calls for you.

"My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,
and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Song of Solomon 2:10-13

Special Resources:

• Nave, Orville J., A.M., D.D., LL.D., Nave’s Topical Bible, MacDonald Publishing Company, McLean, Virginia.
• Phillips, John, Exploring the Song of Solomon, ©John Phillips 1927.
• ¹www.liliesinthevalley.com.

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