Revelation 19:7 says “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”
Ok, so I know this is from the book of Revelation, and people can debate all day long on its meanings. However, I think most of us can agree that generally, the church is seen as the bride of Christ. As a body of believers, we are “married” to Jesus, so to speak. He gave his life for us and set the perfect example of how a husband should love his earthly wife. There are all sorts of parallels that can be drawn- so go with me here.
When I was first married, someone once told me that no matter what I was doing (cooking, cleaning, etc.) if my husband asked me to come sit on the couch with him for a minute, I’d better do it.
Call that chauvinistic if you’d like, but the real meaning behind that bit of advice is that no matter what we are “doing”, or how important it may seem at the time, if our spouse feels the need to sit and connect with us for a while, we need to prioritize and spend that time with him.
At this point you are going to try to convince me that you are performing an act of service by staying in the kitchen and washing dishes while your husband watches TV. Who would do these things if you didn’t? The house would fall apart. You can’t just go around making pie eyes at each other every evening until bedtime. There is work to be done!
Ladies. Guess what? If the house really gets that bad, trust me, he’ll let you go clean it. What your husband often needs is to see that you care about him, not just about doing things for him. (And often, we are really doing those things mostly for ourselves, which is another post for another day.)
Our relationship with Jesus is the same way.
It’s great to run around committing acts of service. It’s great to talk to people about God. But if you’re not talking to God, you’re leaving Jesus on the couch while you go wash dishes. He wants a relationship with you. The bridegroom wants a bride, not a live in maid.
As a family with special needs kids, I can tell you that there is more work to do around this house than if all of our children were typically developing. It is easy to get caught up in what needs to be done. When we work hard for our kids, we are also working hard for Jesus. He appreciates the effort we put into talking care of our families, and he wants us to do our best. But sometimes we need to just chill out.
So, take some time today to talk to God.
Spend some time with him.
Remember that you don’t have to be doing anything.
Put down the cross reference and concordance.
Take a day off from Beth Moore.
Scoot over a little on the couch and make a spot for Jesus.