A Truth to Ponder Every Month Series - June
June – The Wedding Month
The wedding month. As believers we are the bride of Christ. Our groom awaits at the front of the church as the bride readies herself in pure white and is presented pure and spotless to Him.
This is how we are prepared to meet our Lord. We are washed clean by the blood of Jesus and given His righteousness (Ephesians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
But there is an adversary. One against our blessed union.
We see this time and time again in fairytales.
The evil villain goes after the beautiful princess. She is in love with the handsome prince and intent on marrying him.
This isn’t Bridzilla – the bride is not the enemy here.
There is a third party trying to finagle his way in. To stop the nuptials and steal the happiness of this royal couple.
His goal is to worm his way in and destroy the good – and the beauty at stake.
Why? What does this third-party gain by invading this budding love?
Destruction.
The Enemy
He is bent on destroying beauty. Our beauty.
And not only our beauty, but the beauty all around us because it’s creator is God and the evil one hates God and all He has made.
According to James 1:17 all good and perfect things are from God. He created everything good and beautiful and wonderful.
All those things that take our breath away, make us cry tears of joy, smile, laugh, and leave us speechless.
As believers we are the bride of Christ and the relationship at stake is one of life and death - between us and our Ultimate Groom and Savior Jesus Christ.
The groom awaits at the front of the church as the bride readies herself in pure white and is presented pure and spotless to her groom (Revelation 19:7-8).
In the fairytales, the princess bride is the target.
And as the bride of Christ, we are that target. Men and women alike.
As C.S. Lewis writes in That Hideous Strength “What is above and beyond all things is so masculine that we are all feminine in relation to it.”
So as the bride is to focus on being made ready for her groom, we must also be aware of our enemy and be on guard.
We must be focused on presenting ourselves pure and blameless, but also be shrewd and aware (Matthew 10:16).
With armor under our wedding attire and the Sword of the Spirit at the ready (the Word of God), our relationship with the Lord needs to be protected as precious treasure.
Our groom Jesus waits for us to join Him at the front of the church, but we know the aisle could be laced with land mines such as:
Materialism
Covetousness
Idolatry (shopping, self, food, sex, busyness)
Lies about self and God
Photo by Ulyana Tim on Unsplash
Our enemy speaks only lies and is the Father of Lies and continually stabs us with the same ones to us over and over again hoping to hit the chink in our armor (John 8:44).
The beautiful princess bride on the big screen has not care in the world. Her focus is being beautiful for her groom and anticipating their union.
We don’t see her caught in the lies of:
I’m not good enough
I’m damaged goods
Something is inherently wrong with me
I don’t deserve such a groom
As the bride of Christ, we have the amazing blessing of enjoying preparing for this great event today - in the here and now.
But let us be aware. As we look forward to our union with Christ, there is a thief who only wants to kill and destroy and rob us of our joy (John 10:10).
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.”
He is intent on spoiling our special day. As the bride, may we insist – and persist - on having a perfect wedding day with our perfect prince Jesus.
And be determined the enemy can’t have it – or us.
What lies are you tempted to believe? How do you combat them?
For more encouragement and inspiration check out these other posts:
