I love the Bible so very much!!!
There is wisdom in every book, chapter, and verse.

In the Song of Solomon, the wisdom writer says three times to the daughters of Jerusalem: “Do not stir up, or awaken love until it pleases.” Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; and 8:4. ESV

So many single people feel the sting of being alone, and let me assure you, loneliness hurts… both emotionally and physically.

What is our natural response to pain? Move, withdraw, and do anything we can do to stop the hurt. Thus after a loss or separation… divorce, many seek to find their last love, their hiking buddy, ocean buddy… someone who loves their pets. All the things their heart wants to do with a new last companion. Somehow they imagine everything will be alright this time…

But the wisdom writer warns us not to force things, not to stir up love through our own efforts. And man’s love, or self-love, is never about others, it is always about self.
Boys and girls learn from a very early age to manipulate to get what they want. I will romance her to get sex, or I will give him sex to get romance – this is what the wisdom writer is warning against. The outcome is pain and neither party is ever truly fulfilled.

The warning is “Do Not awaken love until it pleases!” It is a solemn charge, given by one who has found true love and is experiencing its joys.
Do not attempt to arouse or awaken love. Don’t stir it up. Love should be allowed to “rest” until it awakens on its own accord. The meaning seems to be this: True love, that which is worthy of being called “love,” should be spontaneous. There is grave danger in trying to “force” love or to stir up passions before their time.

There is a tendency, especially among the young, to fall victim to “puppy love” or to mistake infatuation for true love. The speaker in the Song of Solomon would save us much grief. The charge not to awaken love until it pleases is a warning against entering romantic relationships too young. It is a warning against becoming so desperate to find love that we start looking for it in all the wrong places. It is a warning against trying to manufacture feelings of love where there were none, to begin with.

The NLT translates Song of Solomon 2:7 in a way that emphasizes the need for proper timing: “Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, . . . not to awaken love until the time is right.” Waiting is never easy; in matters of the heart, waiting maybe even more difficult. But waiting for the right one, at the right time, (even in the pain of loneliness), has prevented many a broken heart. Let love rise naturally; let affection be without affectation. The result will be beautiful.

If a relationship is to move on to the next level, then it will do so without artifice or stratagem. If romance is God’s intention, then romance will come. No need to press it. True love is special. It cannot be ginned up, and it cannot be manipulated. Romantic feelings should not be stirred too early. Let them sleep until it’s time for them to awake.

The wording of the adjuration is interesting and quite significant. In two instances, the charge makes an appeal to fauna. Here is the whole of Song of Solomon 2:7: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (ESV). Using beautiful imagery, the speaker underscores the truth that love must have freedom. Just as gazelles and deer are free to roam, so love should have the freedom to move in our hearts in its own time and in its own way. Love should not be manipulated any more than a gazelle should be fettered or caged.

When the time is right, love will bloom. Until then, wisdom advises us to guard our hearts. It will be worth the wait.