The most beautiful bride, ever!

I was reading a fellow blogger’s post and someone asked a question. “On a scale of 0 – 100% how confident are you that your God exists?” It got me thinking, how would I respond telling someone why I believe that Jesus is my Savior? What is my faith based on? Like in Proverbs 27:17b, “and so a friendly argument can sharpen a man.” [TPT]

In changes everything. That little two letter word can change the meaning of a phrase.

I believe in God.

I believe God.

Big difference.

The first one implies you believe in the idea, concept, or the possibility of the existence of God. The second one implies a commitment.

“If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.” (John 13:17 [MSG])

I recently saw the passing of Eugene H. Peterson, who created The Message Bible. In 1980 he wrote A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. (How cool is that title?)
So I ordered it through inter-library loan.

It eloquently states what I believe, and so I therefore know I am not alone in my beliefs. I have also witnessed others with a true hunger for God and His Word, and they live it by example. I’ve mentioned what my goal in life is through my posts, especially Being Salty, Being Fruity, Being Shiny.

I am also aware that there are people who profess to be Christian who do not act like their very life depended on it, (or the lives of others) and it makes me sad, because their actions are the ones that stick in peoples minds, and how Christianity is being judged by the world.

Mr. Peterson wrote this:

“The Christian life is going to God. In going to God we travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same governments, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground.

The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God, and therefore no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, the Lord will guard us from every evil, he guards our very life.

We Christians believe that life is created and shaped by God and that the life of faith is a daily exploration of the constant and countless ways in which God’s grace and love are experienced. Faith is the solid, massive, secure experience of God.”

So in answer to that question, not only do I see it in my own life, but I am always on the lookout for and “listening” to the various ways God brings things into my life that makes me dig deeper, and shows me others have walked in the same path before me, and with me. I keep my eyes and ears open for what God is going to show me next, I asked for it in prayer, and have never been disappointed.

Which brings me back to believing God. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23 [NIV])

“Faith is acting like God is telling the truth.” Mary Neil

Beth Moore wrote the following version of Eph. 1:19, “God exerts incomparable power in the lives of those who continue believing him. Nothing on Earth compares to the strength God willingly interjects into lives caught in the act of believing.”

“I live and breathe God—if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy.” (Ps. 34:2 [MSG])

Believing God is a long term commitment. A daily process that we must return to over and over again. Just like being married. When you say your vows before God and your witnesses, you are giving your word that you are in it for the long haul, until death do us part. Not until you don’t feel like it anymore, or something awful and hard occurs. It takes work. Trust me, I speak from experience. I’ve been married for over 38 years.

Commit is to put trust in charge or trust; to pledge or assign to some particular course or use. (MW)

Vow is a solemn promise by which a person binds himself to an act, service or condition. (MW)

“I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.” (Ez. 16:8b [NIV])

“Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself for it.” (Rev. 19:7 [GNB])

“Like a young man taking a virgin as his bride, He who formed you will marry you. As a groom is delighted with his bride, so your God will delight in you.” (Is. 62:5 [GNB])

God has spoken His vows to us. As we, as the bride of Christ, must speak our vows to be committed to Him. But it is not until death do us part, because we will be alive with Him for eternity.

So BE the most beautiful bride ever and love the Lord with all your heart, every single day. Make it your personal truth to the very core of your being.

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