Tags
RBC Online Resources
The Bride
Imagine a bride standing in the doorway ready to walk down the aisle to marry her groom. She’s glowing with beauty. Her dress is perfectly white and she’s immaculate.
Then splatters of mud, no more like red Georgia clay, come flying towards her and stains her gown. And as she’s standing there crying, a pimple pops up on her nose.
Some days, spiritually speaking, I feel like the bride of Christ before the mud-slinging. But other times, when I haven’t really taken care, I feel like the pimply girl with dirt on her dress. I go through ups and downs in my time with the Lord, reading His Word, praying, and meditating. The down times are when I feel like the pimply bride with dirt on her dress.
But Jesus cleans me up when I call out to Him. I think He loves messes like me because then He gets to show off His mercy, love, and forgiveness muscles to the world. It’s Him who cleans me up, not me. All I can do is be there for the washing of the Word. I don’t actually do the purifying. Jesus does that.
“. . . Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25.)
I can tell when I need a good scrubbing when I become negative or I completely doubt my ability to do anything right. Or I start gossiping. Or I let my enemy whisper lies to me without fighting back with the truth and I get discouraged. Or I covet what someone else has. Or a whole bunch of other ugly things happen. And if I don’t pay attention, that gunk in my heart hardens into a disgusting crusty mess in my soul. I’m not talking about after days of neglect; I’m referring to sometimes milliseconds of neglect. But unlike my oven, I’m not self-cleaning, so I need help.
My help comes from the Word which makes me clean and fresh. Ephesians 5:26 says that it is through the word of God that we are cleansed. The Word renews me, and helps me deal with the gunk in the corners (sin) of my heart and mind. The Word smoothes out wrinkles that have developed. The Word washes away stains that have accumulated and helps deal with the blemishes I have. To do this, I must meditate on the Word day and night.
I don’t want to stay the pimpled-faced, gown-stained bride. I want to be a beautiful bride for Christ. I’m sure you do, too. (Guys, is it difficult for you to identify with this picture? I’ve often wondered about that.) Let’s put on the perfectly white, unstained, wrinkle-free gown, which to me, represents Christ. Let’s be immersed in the Word of God so that we can be cleansed from our impurities. I’m not talking about simply changing our behavior. That may be a result of the inward cleansing we experience when we meditate on Scripture. But we shouldn’t focus on outward appearances. Let’s focus on our hearts, readying ourselves for our groom, Jesus.
Jesus is the Word and He makes us clean; without pimples, wrinkles, or stains.
(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...10 Responses to “The Bride”
leave a comment
Nice one. I’ll keep coming here. Thanks
This is what I needed to hear with the not so good week at work and home. This word has refreshed my soul. Thank You
Good devotion!! In times like these
we need to keep our focus of God and not
the situations we’re struggling with.
He’ll get us through!! He ALWAYS does!!
Thank you for the reassurance that we are never perfect in our salvation . I was saved 2 days ago Tuesday October 4th 2011 ! Hallelujah!!
Jesus in my heart—-now must put his word to practice!
To Todtrev: Yes, hallelujah! That is awesome. I’m so glad you’re part of the family now!!!
I thank God for this massage.
As we prepare ourselves for the Groom we work out our Salvation with fear and trembling. And we look at all the faces of the ones we love who may never accept Christ. How can we live with that? Our subtle ways to try to get them interested in Christ go unnoticed. Dont you have friends like that? My heart hurts for them. I pray for the Holy Spirit to tug at their heart strings.
Thank you for sharing this Alison.
sometimes when my hair is sitting well and the house clean no one comes to call and then after many days when the hair is wind blown and the cups in the sink are not yet washed who comes but my friends.
One puts the kettle on and the other walks over and begins to wash the cups. That’s love.
Washed by the water of His word, what a place to bathe.
After a week of feeling like I’ve been run over, and my responses are too far from being like Jesus — repeatedly — I still need Him desperately. I needed this, too. Thanks.