Jeff and I were engaged for about 10 months before my dad walked me down the aisle and presented me to my husband. I wore a dress my father bought me (off a clearance rack!) during the months of preparation for our wedding day and celebration. To say my heart was full with anticipation was an understatement. Stories were told for many years of “how Julie basically jogged down the aisle” to Jeff! All my thoughts and hopes were placed on the coming day when I would be “the bride of Jeff Sanders.”
Being the Bride of Christ will be even better than being an earthly bride.
Our marriages now would be better if we would look to the heavenly day of presentation to our bridegroom, Jesus. Women today can learn from the Bride of God’s Son, the Church.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come,and his Bride has made herself ready;it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev. 19:6-8)
One day God will clothe us in pure white, the holy acts of God’s people, and He will present the heavenly bride to the one we are promised to. To Jesus, our bridegroom (Ephesians 5:22-23). Even now, we are to save ourselves for him so we’ll be ready for our final union. Together, the corporate Body of Christ forms the church of all true believers. That multitude forms “the Bride of Christ” in the greatest wedding, at the most exotic destination, of all time. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are not even in the same category!
The joining of the Bride with her Jesus will be celebrated in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and they’ll live ETERNALLY, happily ever after.
Wouldn’t it be tragic to sleep through your own wedding? Jesus told a story of how ten young virgins were supposed to wait for a coming bridegroom. 5 were foolish and unprepared, not focusing on the certainty of his coming (Read the amazing parable in Matthew 25:1-12). They missed it.
Earthly brides can learn from the model of the heavenly bride of Christ. As earthly brides, we can ask ourselves many of the same questions we should ask as members of the Body of Christ.
The heavenly bride teaches earthly brides
- A worthy bride presents her BEST self to her bridegroom (The church to Jesus? You to your man?)
- A bride prepares herself to be clean and READY for her love (The church for Jesus? You for your man?)
- A bride lives NOW for the eternally ever after (The church for Jesus? You with your man?)
- When our bridegroom Jesus looks at his Bride the Church, does he see a woman who is in love with him, with her thoughts full of anticipation to be with him?
- When your earthly husband looks at you as his bride, does he see a woman choosing to love him, presenting her best to him daily, ready to serve him and wanting to honor him?
On every day until our heavenly wedding day, we need the Father’s help to grow in loving our earthly husbands out of honor for our heavenly husband. Being part of the heavenly bride changes how we live as an earthly bride. Let’s be ready for the day when we hear, “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” (Matthew 26:6)
As much as I love being an earthly bride, the bride of Jeff Sanders, being the Bride of Christ will be even better and we are guaranteed to live eternally, happily ever after.
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