Bride in Awe

"I will never forget my wedding day. It was one of the most beautiful days of my life. I love my husband and there was nothing I wanted to do more than to marry him! He stood there in the front of the church, ever so handsome in his dark suit and my heart belonged to him. He was my groom and I was his bride...all radiant because of his love for me and my love for him." (from Bride Adorned)

Which bride does not know this feeling...being besotted over our grooms-to-be! Do you remember the days (or maybe you are right there now) when our every thought was about our Mr Handsome and we would practise our new soon-to-be-signatures over and over? And not only did we for ever dream and think about our fiancés, we spent every possible moment with them. I still have a little necklace with a golden plate with my husband's name on which I wore all the time. They were our life!!

Twenty years down the line, I still love my husband to bits! But now that love has even matured. I know him much better than I did in those early years and I've come to truly appreciate his rock strong characteristics.

IS THIS NOT HOW IT SHOULD BE FOR THE BRIDE OF CHRIST?

DON'T WE HAVE THE MOST AWESOME OF ALL GROOMS?

In Psalm 45 the psalmist said his heart is stirred by a noble theme as he recites his verses for the King. How beautiful is that expression! The image that it brings to mind is that of water just bubbling over! To sing the praises of Christ causes his heart to overflow with awe and admiration and love!

Do you and I love Christ? I know I do, but so often I find myself caught up in the whirlpool of a busy life...kids, school, finances, housework and whatever more. Each evening I find myself wrung dry and spit out flat on my back...exhausted with no time for beholding the Lover of my soul...

Oh and how my heart will yearn!! It wants to be stirred by Him! It not only wants to be loved...it wants to love! It wants to sing and praise and be filled with awe at the wonders and the beauty of Christ! It wants to melt at the thought that it is loved by Him!

And so, not being able to continue on without spending time with my Groom, I make the time to just disappear to a secluded spot in the garden to allow my heart to overflow. I carry His Word with me everywhere just in case I find an extra minute, while waiting for the kids, to cherish it! I wake up with my alarm clock in the early morning and before I even open my eyes, I give my heart the space to just whisper to Him. Ah...and my countenance becomes radiant...my soul satisfied...my heart filled with love and courage.

Dear friend, we have the most awesome of Grooms. Behold Him always. Let your heart come alive with your admiration and love and devotion for Christ, the One above all...the One to whom you belong!!

Truly be a bride in awe!

Until next week,
God bless


Some after thoughts:

I am still awaiting my first comment! I would love to hear from you!

Next week is the official launch of my book "Bride Adorned" in Hoedspruit, South Africa. I am super excited. Your prayers will be appreciated! Be sure to look out next week for photo's of the event.

Beautiful Bride

"Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." 

(Ps 45:10-11)

Which bride does not want to hear these words: "The king is enthralled by your beauty"?  We want to be loved and we want to be seen as absolutely beautiful by our grooms! We go to great lengths to ensure that we are the most beautiful bride ever on our wedding days. Months of planning goes into every intricate detail of the dress, the shoes, our hair, our make-up, our nails and all the other typical bridal necessities...all with one goal...to see the admiration and love on our groom's face and to hear the words...'You are beautiful to me!'

• Is this also our attitude in the spiritual?
• Is it our desire to be seen as beautiful by Christ, our heavenly Groom?
• Do we go to the same lengths to prepare ourselves for Him?

 As I ponder this question, I wonder at the various possibilities.


How many people have such a low spiritual self-esteem that they cannot even fathom that Christ could look upon them and be enthralled by their beauty?
How many are just so caught up in the business of living their everyday lives that there is no thought to spare about being a bride to Christ?

Or have you reached the place where your heart, belonging to Christ, is yearning for ever greater intimacy with Him?

There is another aspect to consider...how do we prepare ourselves for our Groom? What will He consider as beautiful? What will enthrall Him?

Is it good works, holiness, spiritual discipline, going to church, fasting, separation from the world?

No!

Christ looks upon our hearts. Take another look at the above Scripture - the English Standard Version of the Bible (ESV) puts it like this: "...forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty."

"It is the bride's whole-hearted love and devotion to her husband that renders her beautiful to him. It is this beauty of sincere affection that enthralls him and which he greatly desires."

(From Bride Adorned)

 

 More than anything else, Christ looks upon our hearts to see if we are devoted to Him.

And if we have given Christ our whole-hearted love, He gives us His Spirit, and when the Father looks upon us, He sees the Son who is altogether lovely.

Will you take a moment with me, just drop everything for a second and give your heart to Christ...
then hear His voice:

"How beautiful you  are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!"

(Song of Songs 1:15)

 I would love for you to leave a comment and tell me where you find yourself in this regard :-)

Chosen Bride

"At her father's house, the bride is ready to meet her groom. Her heart is filled with unspeakable joy. Finally, today she will be united with her groom. How she has longed for this moment to arrive, how her heart has yearned for her husband! Closing her eyes, she allows herself to ponder the long journey that has brought her to this happy day. 

She is no random bride. According to the Hebrew custom she was carefully chosen by the groom's father himself..." (Bride Adorned)

Dear friend, in this blog we take a look at ourselves as the bride of Christ. Quite rightly, when we think of a wedding we think bride and groom. This is their day, their story and their love. Yet today, I want us to shift our focus for just a little while.

You and I are the bride because we have a Groom, but we have a Groom because of the love of the Father! Just as in Biblical times and according to the Hebrew custom of old, we were chosen by our Groom's Father...God Himself.

In the first verses of Ephesians 1 we read:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...For he chose us..."

I think it is so important for us to grasp this. I often find that we have a more personal relation to Christ than to God the Father and in a way this is understandable because Jesus is the Way to the Father. But at the same time God the Father is often and wrongly perceived as more distant and detached.

This could not be further from the truth! Jesus once said: "The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work." (John 14:10)

Every word of love from the lips of Jesus, comes from the Father! Furthermore, Hebrews 1:3 tells us that the "Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being..." Everything Jesus is to us, every act of love is birthed in the heart of the Father...God Almighty.

God the Father loved us and chose us to be His in Christ Jesus.

May we open up our hearts today to this truth of a loving Father who wants to bestow His love and utmost favor upon us through His Son...Jesus Christ. Let this knowledge of His love drive out any doubts and fears we may harbor in our hearts.

Carry with you this week these words from Jesus:

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

As the bride of Christ, you and I have a Father of whose love we can be sure...

Walk tall this week in the love of the Son and of the Father :-)

God bless until next week
Lize

A royal bride

This blog originates from a book that I have just published titled 'Bride Adorned...always radiant in Christ'. If we believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we are His bride! You and I, once mere sinful people, have now become...a royal bride!!

Do you perhaps find this hard to believe? Look at this beautiful description from Ezekiel 16: 10-13

"I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth...You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty."

God wrapped us, covered us and adorned us and, thus touched by His love, we grow exceedingly beautiful and advance to royalty. YOU AND I ARE ROYALTY!

May I ask you...do you enter each day with this identity, this knowledge...that you are a royal bride?

So often, our everyday lives are filled with hardships and struggles and instead of feeling like a bride, we feel stripped of all radiance and beauty. We lose sight of who we are. We don't look or feel like royal brides, do we?

I would love to know how you feel!  Please take a second or two to partake in the poll at the bottom of the page, indicating whether you feel or do not feel like a radiant bride.

In my book 'Bride Adorned' I set out to encourage all Christians and to remind us that we have a Groom with a love so strong and unfailing for us, His beloved bride, that He gave himself to bring us healing and to strengthen us.

'If we allow our Groom to take our face into His tender hands and lift our eyes unto Him, the love we see there will fill us anew with a radiant, confident beauty - inviting those around us to come and share in the everlasting and unfailing love of God that there is for us in Christ Jesus.' (from Bride Adorned)

Dear friend, this is where I want to be...confident and radiant in Jesus' love for me and my love for Him. I want to know that I know that I am His most precious bride. When adversity and difficulty enters my life, I want to be able to say, "I am a dearly loved bride and my Groom will not abandon me. He is with me to help me, strengthen me and to fight for me and He is the Son of the Almighty God...I shall not fear nor faint."

Don't you also want to be in such a place? Through this weekly blog, we will journey together until we are there!

To buy 'Bride Adorned', click on the following link: http://groep7-selfpublish-books.co.za/home/210-bride-adorned-lize-dumon.html

Until next week,
God bless.