“Let us rejoice an exalt and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
– Revelation 19:7
Oh, I love this imagery. Don’t you like this picture of when we will be united with Jesus as His people in Heaven? The picture is of a marriage ceremony, the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. We are the bride of Christ. You and I, all who have trusted in Jesus. The Bible tells us we are the body of Christ, the household of God and in this imagery, the bride of Christ.
I think about my wedding day when I stood at the front of this church sanctuary and the doors in the back swung open and my bride who had made herself ready steps into the room and everybody stands and everybody’s smiling and I’m beaming and she’s beaming and it’s this joyful celebration of a husband and a wife, a groom and a bride coming together and experiencing a fullness of relationship that they had just anticipated leading up to that moment.
Perfect Union With Christ
A day is coming where our union with Christ will be made perfect. There will be no more sorrow, suffering, or sickness. Lord, help us to long for this day.
But now it’d be a reality from this moment. This is what our reunion, this is how Heaven describes our union with Jesus. We know Him now and we love Him now. We have His promises to us now and we live in Him now. He’s our life now. But there’s coming a day when our union with Him will be perfect. Our union with Him will be complete. Don’t you long for that day? No more sin, no more temptation to sin. We’ll be done with sin. No more suffering, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death, with Jesus forever.
Revelation 19:7 Hopes for Jesus to Come Quickly
Oh, this is why the Bible … I mean, Revelation 19 is just this crescendo that’s just growing and growing and it goes into chapter 20 and 21 and 22. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Bring this about. So we pray, yes, Jesus. Come, Lord. Jesus, come quickly. We long for the day when we will see Your face and we will enjoy Your presence fully and completely and perfectly, where we will be glorified with You, where we will be free from sin. Oh God, bring it about. We hate sin.
We don’t want its effects in our lives anymore, in the world anymore. God, we pray for a release from sin, an end to suffering and the end of death for life forever with You and God, we pray please, please, please use us today to bring other people to know You before that day. God, please don’t let us live with the temporary in our minds. Help us to live with the eternal on our minds today. Help us to live for that which is going to matter forever, God.
Revelation 19:7 Prays for Opportunities to Share the Love of Christ
Please, please, please use us to introduce people to Jesus today, to bring people into the bride of Christ today so they’ll be ready on that day, so they will be joined with You on that day. God, please God, we pray for that with people right around as we pray for that with people all around the world. We pray for this with the Dimli-Zaza people in Turkey. God, please save among the 1.7 million of them, God, may they be around Your throne, apart of the bride of Christ on that day.
God, please, as we live and long for that day, help us to lead other people to experience this joyful union with You on that day. In Your name, we pray. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
