Lord, thank You for Your cleansing Word. Make me more like You!
"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7).
John has shown us the magnificent praise music that will be the prelude to the marriage of the Lamb. Now it's time to think about the preparation of the Bride - which is us! What do we need to do to make ourselves ready? Well, first we must consider how Christ wants His Bride to appear, and we find that described in these verses instructing husbands how to love their wives: "... just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).
So according to this, Jesus doesn't want even one spot, wrinkle, or blemish on His Bride. We can thank God our beauty treatments are up to Him, not us!
And the first thing He does to make us beautiful is to give us inner beauty. When we are saved God gives us a new nature and we receive His Holy Spirit.
Next, God starts applying the cleansing cream of His Word. Day by day, He's purifying us and sanctifying us with the Scripture. This part of the beautification process is gradual, not immediate. You received His divine inner nature the moment you trusted Christ for salvation. But sanctification is a continual process as you are exposed to God's truth and the things of this world are washed away from you. Jesus prayed to the Father on our behalf, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth." (John 17:17).
Studying the Word of God today should make you more beautiful, more like the Lord Jesus. You should be even more beautiful tomorrow than you are today. You can continue to become a more and more radiant Bride while awaiting the next wonderful step in God's beautification process!
~Adrian Rogers~
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