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As we near the time for another royal wedding in Britain, that of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, we see a lot of news stories detailing every aspect of their lives. It may stir up childhood thoughts of being a prince or a princess. We may envy their life surrounded by palaces and wealth. As believers God even calls us a royal priesthood so where are our crowns? The truth is if you don’t wear it first in your heart it won’t matter what you wear on your head. Royalty is not a station it is a calling, a responsibility. When we look at being royal with our own desires at the center it is always a misuse and will serve no one in the end. Sure on the surface a person of nobility who is serving for their own empowerment looks happy, successful, etc. However, this is only how it seems and ultimately any time we live for ourselves we end up missing the point of position.
God calls us a royal priesthood, a holy nation not so we feel good about ourselves but so that we recognize our need for Him for without Him we cannot fulfill what He calls us to. The role of royalty in the kingdom of God is the role that Jesus came to fulfill, a servant. Jesus reached other people through relationship; He ministered to them by showing them God's love. Consider the Samaritan woman at the well, by all rights Jesus, according to the culture, should not have even spoken with her. Yet we see Jesus speak to her, extend love and caring to her and extend the hope of the kingdom to her. He chose over and over to reach past his position as the Son of God, past cultural acceptability, past the sin condition of the people around him and just extend love and relationship. He came to serve people who desperately needed the hope found in Him. Shouldn't we do likewise? Jesus even prays this for us in John 17: 20-21
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
I believe firmly it is important to know the position to which we are called. I also believe that without us stepping into this place of position and nobility of the kingdom of Heaven the earth and all its inhabitants will continue under the curse and separation from God. However, I also know that the only reason to kneel and receive that crown of authority in Christ and to step into our roles as Sons and Daughter of God is so that they may know that God sent His Son and that He loves each person just as He loved Jesus, completely and based on His sovereign choice alone. We don't have to earn His love, He freely gives it if we will just receive it. Let us be noble carriers of God's love and to bring people into the Kingdom. May we steward our position well, first by wearing the crown of Christ in our hearts, knowing what was done for us and then to extend that same glorious hope and love to all those around us.