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 :-)