I do (I do), love you (love you), with all my heart. Ah, love and romance, what is sweeter?
“And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said. the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son." - Matthew 22:1-2
Jesus seemed to love weddings. He performed his first miracle at one, and in his ministry he offered multiple parables comparing the kingdom of heaven to marriage feasts. Even his second coming is represented as a marriage feast.
Remember how God loved Solomon? Solomon loved love. A
man with seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines really loved
love. Did you know that the kind of love
Solomon expressed toward his queen and she toward him is the same kind of love
that Jesus has towards us?
Powerful, passionate, protective, compulsive, ardent, hungry,
giddy. If you’ve been in love a time or
two you know what I am talking about. We
were created in God’s image and there is no part of our lives where that is
more true than in our emotions. All that
we are emotionally, God is.
Man is wired to be a reflection of his God. All of his God. There is nothing within us that did not exist
first in our God. The love that God has
for us is the fulness of all love - eros, agape, every other classification we
can find. God’s love is as full and rich,
giving and demanding, devastating and
exhilarating, as any love mankind has ever expressed.
To HAVE and to HOLD
As I was praying
today, I asked what does it really mean to have Jesus? I heard ‘to have and to hold’. It comes from one of the oldest Christian
marriage vows.
Churches differ in
their baptismal practices but this should be the vow used to consecrate every
heart to Christ. This is not a wedding
vow, this is a Bride of Christ vow.
When we undergo the
rite of baptism we do not understand that we are entering into a binding
commitment with a very real ‘person’. We
call him Jesus.
Child of God you are no longer fully human, you are a
hybrid. You are part man and part god. You had many paths you could have chosen but
you chose Christ. This means the God
part of you belongs to him. Well, actually
all of you belongs to him.
That is supposed to mean something.
“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 11: 2-3
Child of God, Christian, I am here to tell you that your commitment
to Christ means something. To have
and to hold speaks to lifelong commitment, unconditional acceptance, physical
and emotional support and a promise to nurture, cherish and protect.
If you’ve been in the trenches for a while this may sound
like a bunch of poppycock. When life is
on an even keel it is easy to gush about Jesus. It’s easy to attribute every good thing to him
and call on him when tough stuff comes along.
But when that tough stuff digs in and takes up residence it is a whole
different matter.
Then we feel neglected, abandoned, rejected, unseen, unheard,
unknown and unclaimed by our God. Then
we go to church and walk out at testimony time.
We don’t want to hear it because we are not living it.
He’s there. I promise
you he’s there hunkered down in the trenches right beside you, covering you
when a missile heads straight for your head.
He’s there picking you up when you take a hit, tending you, carrying you
when you are too weary to carry yourself.
He is there walking through hell with you.
To have and to hold means that he is there with you through
everything. Then why doesn’t he fix it? The
answer is so simple it hurts.
He doesn’t fix it because our heavenly Father ordained
it. Don’t blame the devil, the devil ain’t the boss of you.
God is.
Jesus doesn’t fix it because there is grace in all of
it. There are lessons to be
learned. There are habits to break and idols to cast down. There are parts of
you that are so deeply buried and repressed that life has to scorch you to the
bone to open you up to yourself.
There is not one moment of anything that you go through that
is not for your highest good. So Jesus doesn’t
fix it. He walks with you through all of
it.
“O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be”*
Jesus is the love that will not let you go. When you want to let go, give up, abort and
quit, Jesus is the gentle unction in your heart that says ‘give it one more
day, one more hour, one more breath’.
Sometimes in the midst of your devastation you gasp in
surprise and look around. How have I
survived? How did I make it through, how
did I get this far? There is something
within you that is more than you. That
is Jesus.
That faintest glimmer of light in your darkness is
Jesus. The frailty of hope that refuses
to die no matter how weak it may feel, that is Jesus.
The strength to get back up after you’ve been knocked down so many times
you’re not sure where to find your feet.
That is Jesus.
The thing about Jesus is. he is an all day, every day,
integral part of who you are. He is the best
of who you are. He is the rest of who
you are. He is not separate from
you. He is you.
We cry out to an external God and look for external miracles
to prove His existence. Jesus doesn’t have
to prove himself, but if you ask, he will reveal himself. He will allow you to see that he has always
been there and always will be.
That’s how Jesus is, he is loyal, he is
consistent and he is present. If you are prepared to believe this with all your
heart, you will open yourself to the experience of it.
“And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known”.**
We are the bride of Christ. That means he is responsible for our wellbeing and he takes that very seriously. But he doesn’t give us everything we want or demand. He gives us what we need, when and as we need it. He also gives it as and when we are capable of receiving it.
I need a healing now!
No you don’t. I need a roof, I
need a car, I need food! No you don’t. Perhaps what you need most in this moment, is
to heal that part of your heart that was broken by the experience of not having
food. You think that abundance of food
now will heal it. It won’t.
So perhaps Jesus walks with you through that experience of lack
over and over until one day you recognize that there is no food and
you’re ok. Maybe when you get to that
place you start to see that somehow your last dollar keeps stretching. You have no idea how, but somehow you’re no
longer hungry even though you have no more than you had before. You may not even notice when you get to the place where you can never
be hungry again.
Do not fear lack, do not fear heartbreak, do not fear loss, do not fear defeat. As we heal our fears we simultaneously heal our ability to have and to hold all that we desire. Jesus does not need to fix it, he holds space for you to heal it.
“O joy that seekest me through pain. I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be.”
This is how faith works.
You’ve got to believe and you’ve got to be clear on what you believe. Believe this.
When you became a Christian you made a lifetime commitment to
Christ. That means something.
On your part it means that you daily submit your heart to him. You commit to believing in him even when you
can’t see him. You commit to nurturing
him in your heart, making space for him, listening for him, yearning for
him. It is through your desire for
him that he will make himself known to you.
On his part he commits to nurturing you, protecting you,
taking care of you and providing for you.
That’s his job and you don’t get to judge how he does it. You don’t get to compare yourself to others, grade his performance and find him wanting. You get to trust him. No matter what it looks like.
It is only when you trust him that he will step up and prove
himself to you.
To have and to hold means that your relationship with Christ
is for life. He’s got you and he’s holding
on to you. All he needs is for you to
hold on to him. Trust him to be all that
your heart needs for him to be and more.
And let your heart be all that he needs for you to be, and more.
May this divine union be eternally blessed, joyous and fruitful. Amen.
"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready .. blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. " - Revelation 19:7-9 (excerpt)
§
Author: Max Patrick @VibranceMinistries
Song credits:
* George Matheson (1882), “O love that will not let me go”
** Charles A. Miles (1913), “In the Garden”
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