Being His Bride
For the last couple of months, the Lord has drawn my attention to the word ‘bride’. The Bible says that we are “The Bride of Christ”, “clothed with garments of salvation, arrayed in a robe of righteousness, as though He sees us always in our wedding gown, adorned in jewels.” He places on us a “crown of beauty, the oil of gladness and a garment of praise” (Isaiah 61:3) His garments of salvation are as white as snow, representing a pure life, free from the presence of sin, and He sees us a pure and holy; He sees us as beautiful. Psalm 45:11 says, “The king is enthralled by our beauty.”
Because of this lesson of purity that God has been teaching me, I wanted to take a long white night gown to our ladies weekend retreat to sleep in, and I wanted to take one for each of my roommates. I desired to share with them the lesson that God has been teaching me about being His bride and I wanted the three of us to celebrate together in our long flowing white gowns. (I like symbolism a lot!) I had a very clear vision of what the gown looked like – it was long and it flowed, made of cotton, with long sleeves – and it was very feminine. I haven’t owned a long gown in many years; I searched several stores for the gowns and couldn’t find them, so I gave up the search (I’m not much of a shopper). On the first night of the retreat, my roommate, Jan, walked out of the bathroom wearing a long white cotton gown – she was wearing the gown that I had envisioned. So I told her the story about how God was teaching me what it means to be His bride, and about how I had shopped for gowns for me, her and Sandra, and how I hadn’t been able to find them.
And at the end of the retreat, she gave the gown to me. It was mid-day and I had to leave the retreat center to head for the airport, but I so much wanted to put that gown on and wear it home!
I have never owned such a beautiful long white cotton gown that flows and is feminine, made of cotton with long sleeves. When I wear this gown, I feel beautiful and feminine and it reminds me that I am the Bride of Christ and all of the responsibilities and love that come with the title of Bride are mine; secondly, I am reminded that Christ sees me as righteous and pure, standing before Him in my bridal gown, ready to love and to serve. He sees my heart in the condition that He has made it - forgiven – and the gown is a symbol to me of how He is making me holy, as He is holy.
Do you consider yourself the bride of Christ? Have you spoken your commitment to Him? John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” God gave His son, Jesus, to come into the world and to live a perfect and holy life, to be crucified and to die to pay the price for my sins. The Bible teaches that we all have sinned and we all fall short of God’s glory – we don’t measure up. So God made a way that our sins could be removed from our life. He sent Jesus to come into the world, to live among us, and then to die – His life was perfect, without sin – and because He was holy, He was able to die so that we can be forgiven. Every sin has a price, and Jesus has already paid the price. Forgiveness comes when we first realized that we have sin in our life, when we first ask in sincerity for forgiveness for our sins because Jesus has already paid the price, and when we ask Jesus to come into our heart and to teach us how to live a life that would be pleasing to Him. You see, Jesus did die on the cross – but three days after his death, He rose from the grave – He is alive – and He lives in us. He Lives!
Only after we make our commitment to Christ can we begin to fulfill our role as His Bride. Only after fully committing to Him will we be able to move in the direction of becoming all that He has planned for us to be in Him. The Bible says that The Lord has plans for us – plans to prosper us and not to harm us; plans to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). In committing our lives to the Lord, we will then be able to have the life that He has planned for us from the beginning of time. We will then be able to fulfill our true purpose for being on earth.
His vow to us is that nothing can separate us from His love. He will remain faithful; He will never leave us, He delights in us, He loves us with an everlasting love, He will meet all of our needs, He thinks about us all the time, and He will be with us forever - for eternity. We have eternal life. He will not see our faults, but He will love us in a way that will make us want to grow into the person that we were created to be.
He comforts us when we are down. “Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” Song of Solomon 3:10-13
He allures us to come into His presence and to spend time with Him – one on one, to worship, to sing, to be in His presence. He longs for our worship, for our companionship. He allures us, He draws us. Our Lord is an intimate Lord to each of us. If we will open our hearts and allow Him to minister to our inner most being – our heart, our mind, our spirit – He can fill the void that is in our lives with His presence. He can take the saddest part of your life and turn it into joy. He can take the emptiness and fill you with His spirit so that you sing!
The Bible says that if we start to stray from our relationship with the Lord, He will pull us back to Himself. “I will allure her, I will lead her into a quiet place and I will speak tenderly to her. There I will restore her and give her hope, and she will sing as in the day of her youth.” Hosea 2:14-15. The Lord wants to keep us close to Him. He places a hunger in our heart for Him. If you find that your desire to be near the Lord is fading, then it’s probably because you have stepped out of His presence into the ways of the people around you. Begin to pray this prayer, “Help me to renew my vow to you Lord, allure me and draw me back into your presence; Restore the joy to me of seeking You; Purify me and cleanse me from my sins, Lord, and become my hearts desire.”
Do you consider yourself the bride of Christ? Have you spoken your commitment to Him?
