“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready;” Revelation 19:6-7
As the bride of Christ, we have this life to prepare for the marriage feast ahead. In verse 8 of the above chapter, we are told that the wedding dress is the righteous deeds of God’s people.
We don’t earn our place in heaven as the bride of Christ, we have been sought and bought. The price has been paid and we are His own. But Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
I show my love to my husband Paul by doing what I know makes him happy. I don’t do it to earn his love, but to show my love for him. It is the same with Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn His love. He already gave His life for us. There is nothing more to give. But there is much we can do to show our love for Him.
The Christian life is about growing in love for Jesus. We can start out with a great wave of passionate love for Him, but that tends to fade. That’s when we need to stand by the commitment we made to follow Him, and in doing this our love grows and matures.
Life on earth is hard. Jesus tells us that. He makes no promises of an easy pain free life as we skip our way to heaven. But He has promised us that He will stay with us, help us, guide us and love us until we meet face to face in heaven. This life is not the destination, heaven is.
We’ve been given the engagement ring of the Holy Spirit as the promise that He will return to take us to the everlasting home that he is preparing for us right now. Do we love Him enough to wait, to watch and to prepare for Him? He is coming to claim His bride. He is coming soon. Are you ready?