Thoughts About Being A Bride!

This post is probably not what you would expect based on the title...  But this week in Community Bible Study, I taught on Revelation 19:1-10.  While the passages often move me, this one touched me somewhere deep in my soul...

In Revelation 19, particularly verses 6-10, John shares his vision of the wedding feast of the Lamb...  Jesus, our Bridegroom...  what a mind boggling thought!

Let me take you back to the beginning for a minute…the beginning of time that is!  God created the heavens and the earth and then He created man and woman and gave us stewardship over His MAGNIFICENT creation!  Many times I’ve heard people allude to an idea that somehow God needed us to be complete…

But that’s crazy!  God was perfectly complete within the relationship of the Trinity…  My thinking is that the love they shared was so incredible that it just couldn’t be contained, so it overflowed and what was birthed was creation.

Sadly though, man was not content with what God was providing and he believed the lies of the enemy, that God was withholding something good and he disobeyed him, becoming his enemy, because he loved and worshiped something more than his Creator.

But God wasn’t surprised and He had a plan…  Thousands of years later, God sent His Son Jesus, from heaven, the most glorious place we could imagine, to a stable…  a home for animals…  I don’t know about you, but that would break my heart to have to do that to one of my children.  Thank goodness God isn’t like me!

But it got worse, this thankless world hung His beloved Son on a cross… talk about rejection!  But death didn’t win and Jesus is now in heaven, ruling and reigning AND…  He’s preparing a place for His Bride!  Anyone who has put their faith in Him as their Savior!

But consider this…  throughout Scripture, God uses the metaphor of a prostitute, an adulterer, a swift she camel, a harlot, to describe those who are unfaithful to Him and worship idols…  Well, that would be all of us, if we have not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus!

So let me ask you…  Would you CHOOSE the equivalent of a prostitute for your son?  God DID!!  Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  In other words, while we were still spiritual prostitutes, adulterers, harlots…  Christ died for us!  And not only did He die for us, He longs to wed us (In a spiritual sense, of course!)  That is mind boggling to me!!

So it got me thinking…  When Scott and I were first engaged, he was in a training program for his new job.  He had to travel all over the country and we would go weeks without seeing each other.  I could hardly stand it… I thought of him constantly…  I talked about him to anyone who would listen…  I talked to him on the phone and sent him letters, all the time…  I planned the wedding and I prepared myself, shopping for the most beautiful dress…  Making sure I had the perfect hair style…  Dieting and exercising so that my figure and my outward appearance would be the best that it could be…

But then I had to ask myself…  Am I waiting as eagerly and preparing as diligently for the return of my Heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus?

Am I consumed by thoughts of Him?  Do I talk about Him at every opportunity?  Do I talk to Him as often as I can?  Am I working to prepare my heart, my inward appearance, with the same commitment as I prepared my outward appearance for my earthly bridegroom?

It’s absolutely stunning to me that God…  Perfectly holy and righteous, sovereign Creator of the Universe… would choose us, believers, saved by His grace, to wed His beloved Son!!

Amazing love…  Amazing grace!!