Wed’s Devo - The Mature Bride

Read: Song of Songs 5:1-8:14; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15; Psalm 51:1-19; Proverbs 22:24-25 In our song, the bride’s prayer is answered but the bride is not ready. She had given up and gone to sleep. That was such the way of Israel and the church. We need God desperately and cry out to him to save us. When He doesn’t respond quickly we lose heart and give up too soon - right before the answer comes. Israel had cried out for a Messiah and when he came, they didn’t accept him because he didn’t look like what they were expecting. They had gotten used to their lives and were not hungry or awake enough to see. In our song, when the bride does wake up, she looks everywhere for her lover but to no avail. When she describes him with such tenderness and love, he responds with the way he sees her. He describes her beauty to the world who is watching her with admiration. In the next scene, the bride and the groom are walking together and those watching are wondering how they can grow into that woman. She explains that she was not always this way. She gave herself to the king willingly and he changed her. It is the story of the young virgin growing up into the Bride of Christ over the ages. She began as a child of Abraham and because the bride of Christ. Paul was the great fund-raiser for the Church. He taught the people to be a family by caring for one another and sacrificing and sharing what they had to help a fellow brother in the Lord. He taught that giving was a seed that went into God’s ground and produced a harvest to bless many more. Giving was the key to providing for the ones who needed it and the giver. It was your seed that would bring forth a harvest in your own life and many others. Lord, help us to be faithful to give and bless our faith family and the world. Thank you that you gave your life for your family and for the world. Help us to continue to grow into a mature bride.