Annie
Today I am following my heart, the topic I was meant to use as a basis for this week’s devotion can wait for another time.
Being in the Southern Hemisphere, it was Friday morning when we awoke to the news of our Queen’s passing. It was the strangest feeling, after all, she was 96 years old and looked so frail in the last photo taken of her at Balmoral, still serving, performing her royal duty, only 2 days earlier, so it shouldn’t have been such a shock. But it was.
I remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, when the whole street piled into our little living room to watch it on our 14 inch black and white TV set, as we were the only ones with a TV. Who knew, all those years ago, that she would reign for seventy years, that her pledge made to her subjects at the beginning of those years would still be as real to her up to the end of her days, as it was on that first day.
Have you ever thought about the succession of kings that reigned over Israel and Judah, and what a mixed bag they were? It seems that there were some commended for being good at their “job”, but some were downright rotten apples. No matter what we think about them as we read through their histories in the books of Kings and Chronicles, these men were in their place as leaders of their nation solely because God had allowed them to be there.
No matter how much we may question why God allowed people who turned out as badly as, for example, King Ahab did, to rule over His people, we must, without question, accept that He did. And He still does. But He also blesses nations with rulers who are devoted to their subjects and lead their people faithfully and with unstinting service. So what makes the difference between a ruler who cares about those under their charge, and those who seemingly don’t? I truly believe that there can only be one answer, their belief and faith in the One True God or lack of it.
The United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, indeed much of the rest of the world, has been blessed by the service and devotion to her duty of this diminutive lady who we knew as Queen Elizabeth II. She has not had an easy time during parts of her reign, yet her faith has sustained her and allowed her to continue serving to the best of her ability.
We have no idea what the future holds now, a new monarch who may not have the same faith as Queen Elizabeth II, but a new monarch who has been allowed by God to take over this role. As believers in the saving Grace of Christ, in the redemption bought by Him at Calvary, none of us can stand in judgement of anyone else, we are all sinners, Christ is our only Hope and our only Salvation.
So what can we do in these shifting sands of time? As we stand together to mourn the loss of Queen Elizabeth II, our prayers for the new monarch and his family will not go unheard by our Father God. Prayers that the new king will know the blessing of God as he steps into the unknown; prayers that he will encounter Christ, that he will, as we all must, turn to Christ in humility and repentance, knowing that God will sustain him just as God had sustained his mother throughout her long reign. Prayers that he will know the Peace that only God can bring in all he does.
Prayer: Father God, we offer our prayers of thanks to You for the life and devotion of Your servant Queen Elizabeth II. We pray her family will know comfort and rest as they mourn this great loss. And we pray that Your blessing will rest upon the new monarch, King Charles III, in all he does. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we offer these prayers, Amen