Day Thirteen - The Holy Word of God, Part Two

        

For Her Majesty, the weight and the press of the world is relentless.  The thousands that clamor daily for special privilege and sponsorship are not unwelcomed, but they never go away.  One could always, always be launching a ship or a new line of cars, cameras, corsets, or candies, visiting a factory, bestowing a medal, holding a garden party, inviting the favored many and the favored few.  “Down time” is time that could be given to courting favor and securing support.  From dawn to dark, moments of freedom are very few, and certain freedoms are unknown. 

The Queen lives a somewhat monastic life compared to most.  There are so many things she cannot or must not do.  There are so many things that money cannot buy and privilege cannot bestow, like the liberty to take a walk in her own city or to do any public, or at times even a private, thing without the risk of censure. 

         We make these comparisons because we have a calling just as great, just as vital as hers.  Our lives may never touch as many others as has hers, but those given to us are just as important to God.  We need just as badly as she to seek the Lord and His Kingdom, to know Him as He is revealed in Scripture, to get wisdom, and to know God hears our prayers.  If she can carry on the business of monarchy day in and day out, so can we accomplish those things that revolve within the sphere of our legitimate responsibilities and still find time to seek the Lord in His Word.  We can give precedence to the Word of God and make sure it will dwell in us richly, as we believe it has dwelt in Her Majesty.

What is true in Scripture of rulers is true for us wherever we “reign,” wherever we have rightful authority.  Over a Sunday School class or a schoolroom.  Over a typing pool, a car pool, or a shark tank.  Over an operating theater or operations chief, if we would take up the duties and the honor of our own vocation as she and her Windsor forebears have done, we would have majesty in our lives, just as she does in hers.  Imagine, if we would begin our days with the sense of duty, purpose, and calling that is hers.  Just because it is not given to us in earthly coronation and public acclaim, does not mean our vocation isn’t just as significant on the world’s stage.

         How fascinating it would be to look into the Word of God and examine for a season the rights, privileges, obligations, and authority that have been given to us.  Perhaps these thirty days will be a launch.  All authority, Jesus said, had been given to Him, and the next thing He said was that He was sending us into the world.  We go in the power of that authority, and it is great!  The power to speak of Him and His goodness, mercy, and justice, the power to have our words heard, authority to overcome temptations and deceptions in life, the sacred right to obtain the promises of God, the privileges of prayer and of peace, all are afforded in God’s Word, all are ours, all belong to the royal people of the Lord, the Most High.

         How true it was that of all that glittered and was gold around her that day, of all the precious gems and beautiful fabrics and rich traditions, the presentation of the Word of God was more than all.  Truly, if we own a Bible we have as much as the greatest item that was hers that day, and the only one of all that she could use and enjoy back “home at the Palace.”  We have all that she has, if only we will use what we’ve been given.

         By the Word of God we say, “I will lie down in peace and sleep, because He makes me to dwell securely,” and it is so.  We speak, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name,” and it makes a difference in our lives.  We proclaim, “The nearness of God is my good,” and it is so.

         We have majesty, and we have authority as it is given, just as does her Majesty, Elizabeth II.  The Scriptures were presented to her as wisdom, and as priceless.  From where we sit, in a moment, we might lay our hands upon the richest of all the treasures that were brought to her on that day, we might take up the Word of God and read, and believe, and live, and reign!

Her Majesty on the Golden Jubilee Train, near Darlington
Press Association photo