As some of you know, my husband and I just celebrated our wedding anniversary. It was a very special one. Our fiftieth!!! We were so blessed to have almost all of our family members with us, especially our children. We received cards from literally all over the country expressing congratulations and admiration for “sticking it out” that long. I told one friend, “It really doesn’t seem like fifty. The years have flown by!”
I suppose I have had marriage on my mind a lot lately. If one observed a marriage from it’s beginning to old age, you might have noticed that as the years went by, the couple began to look alike. Even though they might deny it, they probably began to think alike, too. Sometimes they even finished each other’s sentences!
It made me contemplate how we, as Christians, are the bride of Christ. Paul wrote, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25-32). In truth, God planned before time began that those who believe and obey Him in penitent baptism would become part of the bride and be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).
I question, after many years of being married to Christ, how much do I resemble Him? He is without the stain of sin and blameless, thus holy. Am I holy? Do I think like Jesus? Have I been in the Word so much that I can finish His sentences? If not, I should consider how much time I give Him each day. Do I take every opportunity to soak in the scripture? How often do I immerse myself in prayer?
One thing is sure, the more devoted time I give Him, the greater the chance I will begin to look like Him, think like Him, and talk like Him, which is what He desires of all those who love Him!
Today’s Verses: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11), and For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29).
by Teresa Hampton