Love and Marriage…
I am finding some of the best analogies for our relationship to Christ and what He desires of us is that of marriage (or at least, how a marriage should be). It is no coincidence that Jesus calls the church His bride. Just as we are to show our spouse love out of our heart’s desire and not out of obligation or coersion, neither does the Lord desire legalism in our relationship with Him. Serving God with a list of ‘do’s and don’t’s’ is, at best, a forced attempt at what should be done (or shouldn’t be done, as the case may be), instead of a real love from the natural outflow of a heart empassioned for another. This is why holiness has a lot less to do with “ridding ourselves of our sin” and a lot more to do with a relationship; setting apart our lives to know our True Love and to also make Him known. Too many times we get stuck on the first part and never get to the second, when it is the second that becomes the gateway to the first (often times we think we are persuing the second, but are really only chasing after ‘knowledge about God’ and not actually knowing Him or His heart). Could you imaginew learning about your spouse by asking another person for their experience with them, but never experiencing them for yourself, or perhaps going to someone else to find out what your spouse is thinking or feeling or what their opinion is? What would enable you to know your spouse more but your experience with them, spending intimate, personal time. You would gain more than a ‘head knowledge’ about them. Your heart beats as one with them and you would resonate together. This is what our Lord desires of us. Fall in love with Him and you’ll want to do nothing but put Him first and bring Him pleasure. Your desire to please your Love will overshadow your desire to please yourself. If your spouse gave you a list and said ‘these are the things you need to start doing to show me that you love me’, you would feel pretty stupid and somewhat ashamed to then begin to perform those tasks when you had to be told what to do like little child, and that you didn’t seek these things out first and begin to act on them prior to having to be told to do them, and your spouse would not be that pleased at the fact that they had to tell you what to do and that the reason behind your actions were based on some list of rules and not from a desire of your own heart to bring pleasure. So that is why we must seek out our Lover, learn what brings Him pleasure, and our instincts will then be to bring that pleasure to pass. (Seek first His kingdom…) This is holiness…being set apart…not some pious, self-righteous set of ‘do’s and don’t’s’ to follow, but true, unconditional love in action.
