Daily Devotional: Leave and Cleave

​Understanding the relationship between a bride and her parents can help us understand the relationship we, the bride of Christ, are to have with the world.

​Psalm 44:10

“Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.”

The psalmist encourages the bride to forget her own people and her fathers house because she is about to marry the king. When we wed, we leave behind our lives with our parents and begin a new life with our spouse; we forge a new future together. If the bride clings to her father’s house, always involving her parents in her affairs, will it not cause friction in the marriage? If the groom continually turns to his parents instead of his bride, will it not likewise cause conflict?
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While we never forsake our parents when we wed, we must adjust the relationship to its proper place, which is secondary to our marriage. Instead of turning to mom and dad every time we need something, we should come to our spouse with problems, concerns, insecurities, and important decisions. A bride or groom is not truly partaking of the marriage relationship until he or she learns to turn to the spouse for such needs.

 As a couple must adjust their relationship with their former houses to be wholly dedicated to their new marriage, so must we leave behind the world to be fully dedicated to our groom, Christ. If we continually turn to the world, if we are continually looking to society, self-help books, and other people for guidance instead of turning to God for understanding, then we are like the bride who brings her mother into the marriage. Our husband cannot tend the marriage if we are still clinging to our former estate and bringing our previous desires and intentions to the marriage.

Are you bringing your parents into your marriage to Christ? How much of the world are you trying to retain and yet live a new life with Christ? Forget your own people. Forget your father’s house. Recognize that your former life is now secondary to your life with Christ. Embark on this wondrous new journey with Christ, a bride eager for a new life in the home of her husband.

• Reflection: Have you truly left your former life and now cleave to Christ? Leave a comment below to share how God is transforming your life.