Your bridegroom is coming!!

My two closest friends are as opposite as you can be.  One was 23 years older than me, and my other best friend is four years younger than me.  They have some things in common.  Both of them are married, both have families, both of them have made decisions in their lives that they wish they could have changed, but truly, don’t we all. 

My two closest friends are part of my family.  They are everything to me.  They are the ones I go to for support, understanding, encouragement and just to talk, but what’s funny is everything from the way we communicate to what we do together, is completely different.

My older friend, she was more like a mother figure to me.  She saw me and made me hers, without my agreement I might add.  We would talk on the phone every day multiple times a day and discuss everything there is to discuss.  I could tell her secrets about myself that only God knows. 

My younger friend is actually my closest friend in the world.  We are tight, but there are things about me that she doesn’t know and I wouldn’t even know how to begin to tell her.  The dynamics of our relationship are different, not any better or worse but different.

My older friend she was always late.  I mean chronically late.  To the point we would schedule a time to get together and have dinner or just talk, and I knew I had twenty-five to thirty minutes to spare before she would arrive.   My older friend passed away this year, and I can tell you now all the times I would get so angry waiting for her, well, I’d wait for her for hours now, without one complaint. 

She ran late with everyone though, not just me, she was always running behind doing something, or most likely doing something for someone else, and lost track of time.  But I will say this about her, I would be angry with her for letting me wait once again, but that quickly would subside because her company was worth the time.

My other friend, wow, she is early and usually ten to fifteen minutes early, so with her I do my best to arrive exactly on time or even a couple minutes before hand.  I know with her I need to tell her if I am running behind, or even if something in my day has changed.  Now, I don’t need to do this because it causes friction or problems between us, but because I know she is always early and I want to respect her time.

My two wonderful friends came to my mind tonight while reading Matthew 25:5.  I had to smile while thinking about how God has blessed me with two wonderful people, but two who couldn’t be more different if they tried. 

In verse Matthew 25 we are beginning the story of the ten virgins and how five of them are foolish and five of them are smart and prepared.   But verse five jumped out at me and spoke the names of my friends to my heart. 

Verse five states While the bridegroom lingered and was slow in coming, they all began nodding their heads, and they fell asleep.

I believe that Jesus was/is the bridegroom in this example and that this verse speaks not only to the story but also to the fact that we will have to wait on Jesus, at different times during our lives.

Jesus doesn’t work on a clock that we can see, hear or feel. Jesus works on the perfect clock.  The clock that operates on Heaven time and the clock that most of the time we feel like it is dragging slowly by.

I am sure, if you are anything like me; it’s hard to wait on Jesus.  It’s hard to know that there are things that you are supposed to do, but you must wait on Jesus to begin them.  I think that’s why verse five was telling to me.  The verse states that the bridegroom lingered, and was slow in coming.

We know that Jesus is the bridegroom in relation to the church, and to our relationships with Him.  We know that He is the head of the church, and He is also the head of our relationships.  We should be following Jesus and not trying to lead Him.

So if you look at this verse from the context of Jesus being the bridegroom, then we see that He will linger and He will be slow in coming.  Jesus, it has been said, and proven, is never late, but He is never early either. 

He knows the beginning from the end, so He knows the perfect time to release something into your life.  He knows the time when all of the moments have come together and it is right for things to come together. 

We are the ones who have problems with Jesus’ time.  We are the ones that don’t understand His timing, or lack thereof, if you ask some of us.

I have said so many times, even so much as last week,  “let’s go Jesus!”  The thing that I have been waiting for you to bring to me, let’s get it going.  I have asked a million questions of why isn’t this time right?  What do I have yet to learn?  And if I have things to learn why can’t I learn them after receiving the promise?

A million questions I have, and only one answer do I receive, and that is Trust Me, Believe in Me, Seek Me.   The way that He answers might be different wording but each and every time He is telling me to wait on Him.   Jesus is always telling me to wait on Him. 

I get angry and frustrated with Jesus, just like I did with my friend when she was late, but just like with her, I get over it.   I have crying fits and moments of woe is me, but at the end, I get over it. 

It states in verse five that the virgins were nodding off and eventually fell asleep.  I think this can speak to us wanting to give up, or having moments like I described earlier. 

These are times when the waiting isn’t so easy.  These are the times when every single second that goes by is like someone peeling your skin away.  The agony of waiting one additional moment for your promise land, is torturing you, and you know that God knows it.

Waiting, waiting patiently, and with a good temperament can be extremely difficult to do, which is why just like the virgins, we fall asleep.  We take our eyes off the road; we take our eyes off of God and what He is doing in our lives.  We take our eyes off of the changes that have occurred in us or around us, all the little things that need to happen for you to enter into the promises of God.

We nod off to the small things,  the little things that God is stitching together to bring you, your bridegroom.  

Then as we see in verse six… Suddenly!

But at midnight there was a shout.  Behold, the bridegroom!  Go out and meet him!

Suddenly, not a moment to early ,or a minute too late, but suddenly.  I have said many times over God is the master of Suddenly!    But you see, He really isn’t the master of suddenly, He is the master of making it appear like suddenly.

It appears like nothing is happening because we have nodded off to the little things, in our time of waiting and then suddenly, the bridegroom is here! 

It isn’t lost on me either, that the bridegroom came at midnight.  He came at the end of a day but the beginning of a new one! 

Many times when your suddenly has come, when Jesus has answered your prayers or you are walking into your promised land, it feels like suddenly, when in fact, if we would have been awake, completely awake, we would have seen all the small things happening around us to make that suddenly appear.

We may think that Jesus is taking His good old time, but in fact, Jesus is working behind the scenes, on your suddenly.

I heard the other day, while I was watching a very well-known Bishop, that when you are waiting on Jesus to deliver on His promises, you will never see anything different with your natural eye sight, but up in Heaven, in the Spirit realm that is where God is working.  

The promise, the victory, the reward, the change, the promotion, the baby, the marriage, the house, the car, the child to come back to God, the healing, all of these things, we won’t see them come together, but they will come to those who believe.  They will arrive at the midnight hour, and we will be awoken with the Bridegroom is here! 

You will never see the webs that God weaves in the Spirit Realm to answer your one prayer.  You will never see how God takes one person’s mess, and gives them a message and deliverance in the meantime.  You will never know that the same person, who was waiting on God, is now the same person who is helping you wait on God.

Your bridegroom is coming, and so is mine, and if we allow Him to linger, and be slow in coming, we can be rest assured that every single second we wait will be worth the suddenly it delivers!!