IS MY HEART BEAUTIFUL?

We had just finished church on a Sunday afternoon when a married man complained of his wife spending along time making herself clean and beautiful which was the cause of their missing the great praise and worship at this church, he went on explaining to his buddies how many Christian women have fallen short of 1 peter 3:3, “if only our wives understood what this verse meant, we husbands would have no problems at home”, was the married man’s actual words.

I kept thinking of the words that this married man mentioned to his buddies, I can’t argue with him even as am writing this because he has way more experience to being around women than I have, but am sorry not count his experience in my writing and thinking. Am not saying he is wrong but his words drove my mind to taking a closer look to the verse he was basing his conversation. I had already made a study on 1 peter 3:3 not basing it on ladies but looking at how it actually relates to us the men.

1 peter 3:3-4

³Who’s adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

⁴ But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Peter writes this in a century where every woman is expected to virgin on the wedding day, a century where men are looking not for the physical but that which is not seen but hidden inside. Because this was the men of the first century, Peter addresses the ladies to be that which the godly men are looking for. I believe that 1 peter 3 having been directly written to women does not mean that we the men have nothing to pick from it, this verse directly applies to us just that in some times men have used it to criticize them of their short comings. Yet in the same way this verse shows how our expectations and motives have fallen when looking at ladies.

Revelation 19:7-9

⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

⁸ And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

⁹ And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed [are] they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

We all wait for a time when we shall be taken up in glory to heaven, and when we reach there revelation says, let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. It makes me happy to have the promise that when it says the wife, it means the church. We will by then have made ourselves ready. (Verse 7)

As the body of Christ, we are on a journey to heaven, where we shall be married to Christ. If we live with this hope what should our walk be like in this life? Shouldn’t this change how we prepare ourselves? 29^th of this month is a day when two of the sons and daughters of new hope Uganda are getting married, this is exciting news to many people, to the person who will appear at the wedding and be pleased at how beautiful they look and the decoration, people might not actually realize the great work that was involved in the wedding’s taking place. The shopping, endless meetings, the finance, decorating, the stress that comes out of it all, It actually takes a lot of preparation, prayer and trusting in God for that day to happen when the two become one . If it takes this lot of preparation for an imperfect man to marry an imperfect woman, how much preparation should we go through to marry perfect Jesus? The good news is that by then, we shall also be perfect like our bride groom.

I have been to some what many wedding ceremonies, while other people like the end part of the ceremony; I have come to like the very start of it for different reasons. My best part is when the bridegroom is already in the church waiting for his bride to appear, and when she does, hand claps and noise of applause is not an option, everybody stands up to welcome her because they are all there to witness her becoming one with the bride groom. As she walks on the aisle, all yes on her. While every one’s eyes are looking at the bride, I tend to fix my eyes to the opposite direction, the bride groom has nothing to distract him from enjoying the beauty of his bride, and he gazes at her with bright eyes and a smiling face. To him nothing at this point is more important than her and no beauty surpasses the one that is coming towards him. This is best understood by the look on his face. He can’t with stand the beauty that is about to approach him. All that the man is looking at is the gown his lady is putting on, the jewelry, the makeup, and the nice shoes. The bride brooms eyes are only looking at the outside, the physical. How does this relate to our marriage in heaven? We know that we shall one day be joined to Jesus in glory. I for now can only imagine, how happy will Jesus be on my walking on the aisle with him on the other side? There will be a great should by the angles when I appear walking down the aisle to go meet my bride groom. At that point he will be gazing at my beauty with his eyes, he will look at me but will not be interested on my physical appearance, and his eyes will zoom right in the heart. The smile he will have on our heavenly wedding day will be how beautiful my heart will be, not the wonderful makeup, not the fine linen or the smile I will poses on that day. His concentration will be how beautiful my heart will be, not how beautiful my face and outside will be.

One of the wise man said death was like his car because it takes him where he wants to go, this is a man who does not mind of the world, he is confident and clearly knows his destiny and lives in preparation for heaven. I know that one day Jesus is going to be waiting for me on the other side of the aisle to be married to him and that heaven waits for the day when the church shall be joined to its true bride groom. Know of this, I confidently read 1 peter 3:3 in relation to my own life, this puts me to thinking of how much attention I give to my physical and the less time I dedicated to building a beautiful heart for Jesus on that day. When I prepare for the wedding is not when I reach there but now, you don’t start preparing on the day of the wedding, this preparation starts on the day you are proposed to. Jesus proposed me in john 3:16, he use the most romantic words ever and because his ways are higher than our ways, instead of kneeling on one leg, he died, on the cross to confirm how much love he was willing to offer me. When he proposed me, he did not expect me the answer there and then like men do, he gave waited for me to first consider the cost. Luke 9:26. After I said yes he gave me the time to prepare myself and make myself beautiful because I was filthy, Romans 3:23. He did not tell me the day of the wedding, Mathew 24:42, so I live each day so wise waiting for the day of his coming. He is not marrying me and after renting a house, no he is first building a house for me before he comes for me, john 14:2. We will not leave after the honey moon; we will stay in the same house built not of bricks or cement, but of gold, Revelation 21:18. The man who will marry me will give me total peace, he will be faithful, Revelation 21:4. From then we shall be happy thereafter.

 This is a kind of husband we should expect to marry, this challenges me not to view my singleness as preparation for the day I will marry an earthly wife, but to use my singleness to prepare my life and making my heart beautiful for the day I will walk down the aisle with him waiting for me. Being a man, my understanding is limited; I don’t fully grasp the concept of being a bride. I can only picture myself waiting for the bride as she walks towards me. Although I haven’t waited for one, I know how happy I will be to see her walk towards me, for this reason, I have a little tiny understanding of how happy Jesus will be after looking at how beautiful my heart will be. To some of the girls who have told me they wish they we boys, my only message has been that, you are on the advantaged side of the wedding with Christ, because you know how it feels like to have Jesus waiting for you on the opposite side of the aisle. I don’t. if we all will be wedded to Christ in heaven, knowing that he won’t base our beauty on the outside appearance, what should we do to see that we put our concentration on that which will be pleasing to him, 1 peter 3:4. It is the state of our hearts that is going to win Jesus’ heart. For the ladies, it’s not the long gown, not the earrings, not the bracelets, not the hair, not the smile. To the men, it’s not the black suit, not the wonderful tie, not the pointed shoes, not our combed hair and not how much we have built our bodies.to all of us, it will be that which no human eyes can see, it will be our hearts. What will influence how big Jesus will smile is how beautiful our hearts will be, we are all brides of Christ so should work at preparing for the heavenly wedding. If our hearts are focused on heavenly marriage then earthly marriage will not be a hindrance. 1 peter 3 is a calling to every man and woman who is heavenly minded. David is an example to us the men, 1 Samuel 16:7.  is my heart beautiful for Jesus?, is your?