I don't know about you but when I really care about someone, I talk about them all the time. Their name is constantly on my lips and I am always telling everyone who cares to listen, just how fantastic they are! I want to stay in touch with them all the time and am so grateful for the fact that I live in this modern age of hi-tech communications. What would I do without the ability to phone my darling hubby when he is far away (which he often is), or video-call my precious step-daughter on the other side of the world, or send text messages to friends and all the countless other methods we have of communicating. Don't you feel like that? Can you remember when you first fell in love? Didn't you want to tell everyone about this fantastic person you were convinced that the sun rose and set on? How about your first child? Certainly he/she is the most beautiful baby that has ever been born? Grandchildren? You get the picture?
Have you ever had an affair or known someone who has? Imagine what it must be like to sneak around and never be able to tell anyone about this person you love so much, never to be able to include them in those special family events or to meet in public places in case you get seen by someone who knows you. I can only presume that affairs never last because they are nothing but a pile of messy frustrations and unfulfilled dreams. They are doomed from the outset because they are selfish, hurtful, underhand relationships with no future to build on. An affair may stroke an ego or satisfy a desire but it is shallow and stagnant as opposed to a marriage which is like a river, filled with life, growth and movement. A marriage, like a river, may have its rocky and turbulent places, but it has direction and purpose.
The point I am trying to make is are you "married" to Jesus Christ, or just having a "fling on the side" with Him? Do you want to communicate with Him and praise Him all the time? Do you have a desire to show or tell everyone what He has done in your life and is still doing or do you keep your relationship with Him a secret? Are you living your life in a way that gives glory to Him, regardless of whether or not it makes you popular, or are you living to please your peers? Do you keep your relationship with Christ a secret and only make it to Church if there is nothing else happening on your social calendar? Do you laugh at the odd "dirty joke" so that people don't think you're a prude, maybe even tell one of your own? I could list a thousand other things that society finds acceptable and normal but that Christ would condemn and any true follower of Christ would not participate in.
A person who truly loves Christ cannot live in a way that is not pleasing to Him. Their desire is to praise Him and to pray, to serve Him by doing His works, being His hands and feet and spreading the news about what He has done for each and every one of us! To do this you don't have to become a missionary and travel to some foreign place, you can do all of that right in your own home or workplace. You can smile at a stranger, hold the lift door for someone, speak kindly to your employees, listen to a colleague who is having a bad time or provide a meal for a family in need. Of course there are a multitude of other things you can do, big or small, but it so often is the little things that count. Let your relationship with Jesus show in the way you conduct your life. Let the joy of knowing that the Creator loves you spill over and touch the lives of others so that they too want to know and experience His love in their lives!
So ask yourself, are you a loving "bride", pure in your love and commitment to Christ, or is your relationship a well kept secret?
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