What If You Acted Like Jesus Was YOur Fiance?
The other day I was contemplating… What does it really mean to be the bride of Christ?
Then the idea came to me…what if we acted like Jesus was our fiance? What would that look like?
I started to think back to that “head over heels” stage when my husband and I were engaged...what if we acted the same with Jesus, continuously?
It might look like this:
We would hardly be able to think of anything else, our thoughts would always drift back to Him.
He would be our “distraction.” Not social media, podcasts or books. When we were making food, folding laundry, or waiting in line at the grocery store... sigh. I love Jesus soooooo much. (and we will probably send him a text with a million heart emojis.)
We could not wait to talk to him. Prayer would not be a chore, it would be a delight! We would hardly be able to contain ourselves till we could tell Him about our day.
And the opposite would happen too. Oh would we listen!
I loved and longed to hear my husband's voice when we were dating. This was back in the day of pay phones. He would walk a few blocks (that man was dedicated!) to the nearest payphone on his break to call me for only a few minutes. We absolutely cherished those few minutes.
We would always be looking forward to the next time we could be alone with Jesus. We would endlessly tell him how much we love him.
We would read any love letters He wrote to us (The Bible) over and over and over again, treasuring every piece of it.
We would be ridiculously grateful for any gift or act of service.
We would plan how we could shower Him with gifts and affection.
We would be focused on preparing for our future together.
We would relentlessly talk about how awesome He is to everyone we knew. Heck, we tell people we didn't know how great He is and how in love we are. We'd make sure that engagement ring was as shiny as it could be and we were flashing it around as much as we could.
No other man could possibly compare to our fiance. In our minds and hearts we were already set apart for him. No man could possibly be more important than him.
And we would not care if anyone else thought poorly of our fiance. (The world is NOT favorable to Christians right now) We would not hide our love for Him.
So how do we measure up NOW after we've been a Christian for a while?
Contrary to what the world says, couples don't fall out of love. What does happen, is they quit deciding to love and pursue each other.
Unfortunately that can happen in our walk with Christ as well.
In Jeremiah 2:2 God talks about how He remembers what Israel did as a “Young Bride.” But then how they turned away to worship other gods.
And in Revelation 2:5 We are reminded to do what we did when we were first found and fell in love with Jesus. When we pursued Him passionately.
This is your reminder to do what you did at first. 💙
He is still head over heels for you, I assure you!!
Based on the description I gave before, that would look like this:
Start thinking about him more during the day again. Not just in emergencies when you send up a desperate prayer. He WANTS to hear from you, even in the smallest ways. At this point I'm thanking the Holy Spirit for reminding me of things. Thanking Him for protection whenever I drive. Thanking Him for any ounce of energy I have.
Look for times you can be alone with Him.
Read His love letter every single day.
Be ridiculously grateful for even the smallest of things that He's giving you. It could be as simple as you have eyes to read this right now or breath in your lungs.
Think of ways you can shower Him with affection and then act on those. Little worship sessions in your car while driving or in your bathroom while getting ready count!
Think about your future with him. And then think about the people who don't yet have a future with Him. Tell them how much YOU love Him and how much HE loves them too.
Ask God to reveal if you're putting any gods before Him. Keep yourself for Him alone.
I don’t know about you, but I need to get after a few of these areas! Some I'm really great about, some not so much. Ask God to rekindle and fan into flame your love for Him, His Word, and His people.
We were Jesus’ passionate purpose when He was on this earth. I want Him to be mine while I'm on this earth.
Which one of these spoke to you most today?
Maybe start with just one area. Talk to Him more, read His love letter, or worship in your car.
The goal isn’t perfection, it’s pursuit.
Let’s fall in love with Him again, one intentional moment at a time. 💙
In passionate purpose,
Dorothy