Lord, Haste The Day

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

-It Is Well With My Soul, by Horatio Spafford

About a month ago, my church met in person for the first time in 22 weeks. Even though I couldn’t give my friends hugs and had to wear a mask and sanitize the whole time, it was such a sweet and happy experience.

We sang the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” and I think it was so appropriate that my music minister chose this song. This year has been CRAZY, to say the least, but despite all the craziness Jesus is constant.

As we approached the fourth verse and started singing about Jesus coming back, my emotions overwhelmed me. “Lord, may I long to see that day. May I look forward to it more than my wedding day!” I prayed.

Because you see, Caleb and I have been inching our way closer and closer to engagement. And I’m so stinkin’ excited about it! I’m not necessarily excited for engagement, because I’ve heard people say that it’s extremely stressful. But I’m looking forward to the day that he and I become married. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

Over the summer I’ve become more and more sure that I’m ready for marriage. I’ve known I want to marry Caleb for years, but I’d been hesitant to fully commit to the idea. Over quarantine that changed. I know for sure that I want to marry him, and the sooner the better!

As we were singing “It Is Well With My Soul” in church earlier this month, I began to wonder if I had been looking forward to getting married to Caleb more than the future marriage between Jesus and the Church.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding and in Revelation, it talks about the wedding supper of the Lamb (Jesus). I have a whole post written about this if you’re interested.

I believe that one of the main purposes of Christian marriage is to preach the gospel. To ourselves, to our children, and to the world.

Wives respecting their husbands as the Church respects Jesus and husbands loving their wives like Christ loved the Church– even to the point of dying for Her– that’s pretty radical stuff!

Even the Christian sex-ethic of remaining abstinent until marriage is a way to preach the Gospel. It is a way to show the world a small picture of what God’s perfect, selfless love for us looks like. (Read more about that in my post Four Reasons Why Premarital Sex Isn’t an Act of True Love)

I wondered if my excitement for my marriage to Caleb had any parallels to waiting for Jesus to return.

And I think it does.

You know that song “Even So Come” by Chris Tomlin?

Like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be a church ready for You
Every heart longing for our King we sing
Even so come, Lord Jesus come

I’m finally understanding what that feels like.

I might not be a bride yet. In fact, I’m not even engaged yet. But the excitement and longing I feel for marrying Caleb should be tiny compared to how I should feel when it comes to Jesus returning. (Or me dying and going to be with Him. Whichever comes first.)

It took me years to feel ready to marry Caleb. Am I ready to go home to Jesus?

Well, yeah in the sense that I’m a Christian and know that when I die I’ll be with Him in heaven. But just knowing that I’ll be with Jesus when I die doesn’t mean that I’m ready. I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to marry Caleb. That didn’t mean I was ready.

I’m not sure if I have an answer to that question. But it’s sure something to think about.

What about you? Are you ready to go home to Jesus? Are you looking forward to and longing for that day? Does the thought of it excite you and make you feel impatient?

Sometimes I think I’m apathetic in my relationship with God.

Should I feel a certain way? Is Christianity a religion based on feelings or facts?

Typically, I’d answer that it’s a religion based on facts. Facts and faith. Because we can have a relationship with God even if we’re not feeling like it.

There have been days, though, that my relationship with Caleb isn’t exciting. The butterflies of infatuation have flown away. More often than not, hanging out with him just feels normal. And to be perfectly honest, I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful that spending time with him feels completely normal and natural. I’d rather that than feelings of butterflies.

So maybe it’s not a bad thing if we don’t feel excited to read our Bibles and pray. Perhaps that doesn’t mean we have a weaker faith than those people who seem on fire for God. Perhaps it means that we’re at a different stage in our relationship with God.

The “I feel totally comfortable and at home with you” stage.

Just because I don’t feel the butterflies anymore doesn’t mean I don’t want to spend time with Caleb anymore. (Whew! Tons of negatives in that sentence LOL!)

In the same way, just because we’re not feeling “butterflies” in our relationship with God doesn’t mean that’s an excuse not to spend time with Him.

In fact, I’ve found that by spending time with God even when I don’t want to, the feelings of “wanting to” soon follow the action. It might take a few weeks for the feelings to catch up with my actions. But they typically come.

Isn’t that what we see in 1 Corinthians 13? That love is action rather than feelings?

And even if we don’t feel loving feelings towards someone, we can still choose to love them through our actions.

I think that’s true in our relationship with God too.

Would we rather have Jesus than a husband?

I wrote a post by that title three years ago, and I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

Would I truly choose Jesus over Caleb? Would you choose Jesus over getting married?

Where do our priorities lie? What do our actions and choices say about my priorites?

This has basically turned into a long rambly post, but I hope it gave you something to think about. 😅

Until next time,

Kara Beth

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Devotionals, Engagement. This post has one comment.