Divine Intention

Divine Intention
Alice Smith

One day, years ago, I was in the mall with my children when I saw a young teenage couple sitting on a bench making out. They were completely oblivious to the shoppers walking around them. People were so distracted by the couple’s unusual behavior that they lost sight of what they were doing. All the while, I was trying to distract my young children, who were gawking at this inappropriate passionate behavior.

Lovers do not express their intimacy in public, they relate to one another in private. The same is true of our love relationship with the Lord Jesus. He has not chosen to relate to as as His business partner or His servant; He has taken us, for better or for worse, as His Bride. Jesus desires to commune intimately with us because He loves us and longs for fellowship with us. Don’t answer the call of your bridegroom from a sense of duty.

Remarkably, His heart is filled with secrets that He wants to reveal to us. “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them” (Ps. 24:14). What we receive in prayer, in our secret place with Jesus, the lover of our souls, we will live out in the everyday world. The love we feel in private will in appropriate ways be manifest in the open.

This close relationship the Lord longs to have with you is not based on your worthiness. So resist the impulse to wait until you feel worthy to come to Him, because you never will be worthy of His wondrous love! It is not a matter of the mind but of the heart. For it is in your heart that God has placed His Spirit to bridge the chasm your sin created between you and your heavenly Groom.

Jesus, in wooing you, is destroying all your other lovers—self being the biggest of them all. He is jealous for your total affection. A kiss is a very intimate transaction. Jesus wants to impart His love to you as He kisses you with favor, love and grace. Once you find yourself successfully snuggled in the arms of your heavenly Bridegroom, you will be lifted out of self and centered in His purposes. Your heart will beat in sync with His. Your thoughts will be His thoughts and your desires will reflect His. You will have less concern for His meeting your needs and more concern for your meeting His needs.

Does God have needs? In one sense He does. Our self-limiting God has arranged the universe in such a way that He has chosen to be “codependent” on us. Jesus is looking for worshipers and intercessors. He has chosen to “need” us. And because He has, He will also equip us to fulfill His expectations with regard to this relationship. Amazing!

It is often said that the longer a married couple lives together, the more they look alike. The Father’s plan is for us to grow into the likeness of Christ (see Rom. 8:29). In order for us to be conformed into His image we must once and for all determine that we will not be conformed to the world (see Rom. 12:2). Your time spent in the prayer closet with Jesus will cause you to favor His likeness and people will begin to see His glory reflected in you.

A vital relationship with your heavenly Groom is a partnership with a purpose. He desires to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory (see Hab. 2:14). He does this by filling the earth with sons and daughters born of His Spirit. As His bridal partner, we are critical to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. He wants us, His bride, to be pregnant with His burden for the 3.5 billion people who have never heard Calvary’s love story.

Won’t you seek your Bridegroom today in the bedchamber (your prayer closet) so that Jesus’ burden for the rest of the world can be deposited in your heart? He is waiting for you now.