I often marvel at how the Lord chooses to emphasize His truth to me through my every-day life. Today I went into the office of the company that I work for. It was my weekly trip to pick up invoices that I cannot print off at home. I ended up having to wait around for a while because of some computer problems. I walked into the main print room – where all the action usually resides – just as one of the guys said, “Hey guys! We really are brides though. We are the bride of Christ.” Initially, I broke into laughter. The gentleman that made this statement is a rather “manly man.” Hearing him declare himself as a bride…it struck me funny! This evening I was finishing up my English assignment. One of my projects was to research Isaiah’s prophecy about Christ. Isaiah’s prophecy states that Jesus would be conceived by a virgin. In my Bible commentary I read, “Jewish betrothal was as binding as modern marriage. A divorce was necessary to terminate the betrothal, and betrothed couples were regarded legally as husband and wife.” The concept of engagement being equal to marriage made me think. This is a perfect picture of the church and its betrothal to Christ! We are engaged to Jesus Christ and have a serious responsibility to keep ourselves pure. We are waiting for that magnificent day (the day when we will see Jesus Christ face to face and truly be one with our God).
How jealous would you be if you noticed that the person you were engaged to was giving special attention to someone else? Would you not be angry? Yet, how many times a day do we get our eyes off of our Savior and on to this world? The pressures surround us. Our pride makes us want to stay on top of everything. Fellow believers frustrate us. People offend us. Satan does an excellent job deterring out eyes off our Lord.
If your eyes are drifting off of your Savior, cry out for something – anything - to refocus your attention. If you need a trial in order to accomplish this end then ask for it! There is no harder test to succeed in than the test of blessing. No amount of pain can out weigh the terrible consequence of allowing your eyes to drift off of your Savior. Give thanks to the Lord for the lessons that cause you to thirst for Him.
You are engaged, dear Christian.
5 comments:
Very True... I'd probably drop kick him!Thank goodness God is merciful and forgives me every time I put my attentions toward worldly things.
I've often thought about how in Bible times "engagement was equal to marriage," and well... Yeah, I know you can see all the questions rolling around in my head... : )
I kinda thought about that but not resently. I'd love to talk more about this some time. I'm sorry you wenr'nt able to come over today. Get better soon.
you're exactly right. think of all Christ did for us. and yet so many times we just treat Him as an acquaintence. He should be the ultimate love of our life!!!!!!
Another thought provoking topic is the idea of jealousy. God says that He's a jealous God; just as you'd try to renew a relationship if you were engaged, the same is true for Christ. You mentioned that we should ask for something to draw our attention back to Him but He's already doing that because He is jealous and wants us completely to Himself. The problem is that in our infinite wisdom we become distracted with our own agendas and ideas and take our back our life which we dedicated and gave to Him.
It's kind of funny how these ideas have all been marked crazy by the world. To consider yourself basically married while you're engaged, heck that's when most of the world does all the crazy stuff they want to do before they are tied down. Jealousy, it's considered terrible if you're jealous of your partner anymore. It's excepted that your parter should be allowed to hangout with whoever they want regardless. I'd say that person doesn't have a true love for the other if they weren't jealous of someone else taking their partners heart.
NOTE: I'm talking about jealousy as described in Exodus 20:5
Shay - it's the whole emphasis of commitment first. Later... :)
Ash - Thanks! I am feeling better...and we should definitely discuss this is more length sometime.
Melzers - "He should be the ultimate love of our life!!" exactly! :)
Eric - You're right; our God is a jealous God. I guess I was speaking from personal experience when I said that we should ask for something to refocus our attention. In the few months before Chris left, my attention was deterred off of Christ. Life was going beautifully. I helped my best friend, got paid to do so, was finishing up school...looking excitedly to a new step. Then God took Chris and now I'm more focused on Him...because I have to be. I failed the test of blessing so the Lord introduced pain to refocus my eyes. I’m just so thankful that He is jealous God and He wants our heart – no matter what. BTW, you need to fill me in on everything that happened yesterday. (With PLH) :)
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