Building an Intimate Relationship with our Prince

As young women, we are often more worried about finding a boyfriend than discovering our Prince. And yet, an ongoing, passionate romance with our true Prince is the foundation for success in every other area of life. So how do we develop that intimate relationship?

To be a true princess for Jesus, we must develop an inner sanctuary for Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19 asks "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" We need to keep that temple clean and pure.

Imagine your wedding night: everything was perfect at the ceremony and reception, and now you and your new husband are walking in to your hotel room to spend your first night together. He sweeps you up in his arms and carries you over the threshold, then kisses you tenderly before gently setting you down. It is so romantic! But then you notice that instead of roses, you smell something disgusting. You look around and realize that your room, the place where you were going to spend your romantic wedding night, is covered in garbage. There are bags of rotting food and lawn trash, soda cans and bottles, paper and food wrappers scattered everywhere. As you look again, sure that your eyes are playing tricks on you, you see that there are also people in the room. All of your old boyfriends are standing there, watching you with something that looks too much like lust to make you feel comfortable. One of them comes up to you, takes your hand, looks you in the eyes and says, "hey, baby." Then you notice a movement behind you, and you turn and watch in horror as your new husband leaves the room. You run after him and ask him where he is going, but all he says is "I can't be with you tonight - not like this." Your wedding night is ruined, and your groom is gone.

Obviously this story would never happen in real life, right? I mean, no one in their right mind would let trash and old boyfriends in the room on her wedding night. But when it comes to spending time with Jesus, this is exactly what happens. There is so much garbage in our hearts that there is barely room for Him, and our other lovers have staked so many claims on our time that there is no time left for Him. An intimate relationship with Jesus is impossible while so many other things clamor for our attention.

So how do we get rid of these attention hogs? We need to take out the trash! Galatians 5:24 tells us, "among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good - crucified" (The Message). We need to weed those things out of our lives in order to truly belong to Him.

Jesus sacrificed himself to cleanse us of our sins, and the Bible tells us that he moves our sins away from us "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12). All we have to do is ask Him. Leslie Ludy, author of Authentic Beauty, suggests taking these steps to cleansing the trash and sin from our lives:

1. Get alone, with plenty of uninterrupted time, in a place where you are comfortable talking to God. Play worship music or songs of surrender softly in the background, and make sure to take a pen and some paper with you.
2. Ask God to show you, one by one, the sins in your life, past and present, that need to be dealt with. This can hurt, but as you go through all the trash in your heart, you will begin to feel a freedom like never before. Also ask Him to reveal the "other lovers" in your life - the things that take up your time and attention.
3. Deal with your sins. If you have hurt someone, call or visit them, repent and ask them for forgiveness.
4. Make every part of your life right to the best of your ability. Destroy things that have a hold over you, like mementos from a past relationship, or objects that cause you to act in a way that is displeasing to Jesus, such as seductive clothes.
5. Step away from your other lovers. If you spend all of your time watching TV or playing on the computer, set a time limit for yourself each day. If your attention is spent on friends, stop seeing as much of them and set yourself some time alone with Jesus.

It is hard to hear these steps, because often we don't want to give up certain things. Sometimes we may think that we will have nothing if we give up the lovers to which we cling. But God has promised to take care of us, and Psalm 37:4 reminds us of this promise: "delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." You will find that once you take out your trash and kick out your other lovers, you will have made a pure place, a sacred sanctuary, for Jesus in your life. And when He is your Prince, your Lover, and your life is consumed with an intimate relationship with Him, you will lack nothing. He will enhance the areas of your life that you thought would be destroyed when you got rid of the trash.

- Pam