Our Engagement to the Bridegroom

The big question is asked and the potential bride answers with an enthusiastic yes. No date is set yet for the big day because the bride and groom have much to learn about each other before they can move into this next phase. Expectations are in place though for what will and will not happen during this engagement. This scenario is not unfamiliar to us. Nor was it unfamiliar for Joseph and Mary before their lives were turned upside down. Even that story is very familiar to us as we have just celebrated Jesus' birth. Have you ever considered that their story was actually the precursor to ours with Our Lord and Bridegroom?

In Jewish culture, the arranged marriage was considered a signed contract waiting only for the actual consummation to make it official. The bride is considered aligned with the groom from the moment of the agreement of parties. However there was preparation that had to occur before the consummation of the marriage could take place for both individuals. Joseph was preparing for Mary to become his wife, preparing their home, preparing for the future. Mary was preparing herself to become Joseph's bride, praying, fasting, purifying herself. Suddenly the unexpected and shocking happens - she turns up pregnant. Joseph considers "putting her away" until God intervenes and instructs him otherwise.

Compare this scenario to your Christian walk. The Lord wooed you until you finally saw the light - literally :-) - and accepted His marriage proposal. You became the future bride of Christ awaiting the grand marriage feast in heaven. The Lord is doing His part - creating for each of us our mansion in heaven. In fact He even sent us our engagement guarantee - Holy Spirit Himself. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit,guaranteeing what is to come. Talk about an engagement ring that is visible to everyone around us... Holy Spirit living within us. Just as an engagement ring declares to everyone that this person is taken, committed to another, our life as a Christian should emphatically state the same thing to everyone. We are taken and committed to our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

The engagement is firm and now we are preparing ourselves as the future Bride. How frequently in our engagement period though have we turned up "pregnant" with something that did not come from our groom? Joseph had the right as the potential groom to end the engagement based on what was seen. When we present ourselves as unfaithful to the Lord, He also has the right to "end the engagement" but He chooses to give us a second chance, a third chance, as many as it takes for us to remain with Him. However that is only the case if we are repentant after our unfaithfulness.

Recognizing the issues in our lives that would cause such a "pregnancy" is critical to our ability to participate in the wedding feast and thus avoid the second death. If we want to remain in the loving embrace of our Lord and our potential bridegroom, then we must be on guard constantly to dismiss the adulterous lovers from our lives. Anything that takes our attention away from the Lord is potentially the illicit lover of our lives. Whether that is our job, our relationships, our money, our success, our image with "the neighbors", or the more obvious lovers of addictions and immorality, each of these has the potential to create an unwanted "pregnancy" that stemmed from these affairs of the Soul and Flesh.

We are human and as humans we have three parts: Spirit, Soul and Body (Flesh). The Soul and Flesh will battle with the renewed Spirit of a committed follower of Jesus Christ. When we are born again, our Spirit is transformed, never to be the same again. The Flesh and the Soul however did not get transformed. It is our responsibility to work daily on that transformation process through the power and anointing of Holy Spirit operating within us. Until the day of the Lord's return, we must daily endeavor to remain faithful and true to our Bridegroom. Some days we will be bombarded with distractions designed to turn us from Him. These distractions are to be expected. Our choice is what we do with these distractions. Will we remain faithful to our waiting Bridegroom or will we wander off with a possessive lover? Choose faithfulness. Choose remaining pure for the wedding feast. Choose Christ.