Rousing Her Radiance: Day 8

Dying for Love

‘The law of prayer is the law of belief.’- Medieval axiom

We believe therefore we pray. We believe in the Church therefore we pray for the Church.

In her courts, we behold the beauty of the Bridegroom; we too become beautiful—wholly man and wholly woman, empowered to rebuild boundaries burned with lust and abuse. We taste His goodness and are becoming good. Gratitude invites us to pray for the Bride. We do our part to prepare for the Bridegroom.

Our biggest challenge? Our voice doesn’t count. We are helpless against diabolical figures who prevail in her courts. Yet, THAT is pure deception. You are a member of the Church, whichever expression. And as a baptized member, you bring the full heft of your authority to implore the Bridegroom to act swiftly and decisively on behalf of His Bride. Don’t forget, we are His Church before we are our Church.

Will He ever lose sight of Her original beauty amid Her brokenness and confusion? Will He ever fail to reclaim that beauty? Never!

We take up that reclamation on our knees. We pray because we believe the Bridegroom. Without a doubt, He loves His Bride above all else.

Believe! Do we believe the Bridegroom’s sovereign care of His Bride amid lies and rumors of lies that surround Her? I urge you to die with me to our faith in newsfeeds and entrust Her to Him.

While praying, I saw a picture of a ‘seed’—you or me—threatened by bridal battles and tempted to feel isolated and alone. Instead, the seed acted—entered Her courts and began to pray for Her beauty and dignity, all the good things She is and can be.

Even better, one seed joins with another and takes seriously Jesus’ promise to gather with even two who agree ‘[t]hy will be done’ (Matt. 18:19-20). We pray together with a brother or sister with assurance that He is preparing a radiant people for Himself.

The seed dies to its sad hardening shell, breaking open the husk. A thousand seeds of belief are flung into the rich soil of the Bride.

We die for love and find our lives again in prayerful commitment to Her best, our best. It is His Church, after all.

‘Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces many seeds’ (Jn. 12:24).

‘We believe You Jesus for Your Bride’s best. Help our unbelief. Gracefully goad us to fall face down in agreement with Your Sovereign care of Her, of us. Enveloped in Your will, we fight for Her beauty.’

‘Father, we thank You for Jesus who established the Church on a Rock against which hell will not prevail (Matt 16:18). We pray for every Christian leader to build on Her firm foundation of sexual clarity and integrity. Father, unmask the deceiver and divider of Christians and unite us in one Spirit. As weak members of Christ, we ask for truth to guide our pursuit of sexual wholeness, for grace to sustain it, and for spiritual power to transform us. May we reflect the chaste radiance of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) as we “shine like stars in the universe, holding out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16) to a lost and hurting world.’