{"id":18185,"date":"2014-02-28T00:30:30","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T05:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=18185"},"modified":"2014-02-28T00:34:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T05:34:54","slug":"christlife-thirtyfive-delighted-favored-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/28\/christlife-thirtyfive-delighted-favored-honored\/","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTLife &#8212; ThirtyFive: Delighted In, Favored, and Honored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cl-delighted-in-favored-and-honored.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18117\" alt=\"cl delighted in favored and honored\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cl-delighted-in-favored-and-honored.jpg\" width=\"454\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cl-delighted-in-favored-and-honored.jpg 454w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cl-delighted-in-favored-and-honored-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hadley, my two-year-old granddaughter, recently spent a week with me. \u00a0And, yes, I pampered her as all grandmothers do their grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Like most women, Hadley enjoys a bubble bath at the end of a day and I was happy to oblige her. \u00a0One night, along with the rest of the bath toys she likes to surround herself with, I tossed a crown into the tub that had been used for decoration on a birthday cake. \u00a0As she soaked in the bubbles, the crown floated past her. \u00a0She grabbed the crown, placed it on her head and said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201c<strong>I\u2019m a Queen.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Oh, the imagination of a child! \u00a0How quickly Hadley had made the transition from being a little girl surrounded by bubbles and toys to wearing the title of Queen! \u00a0Just for fun, let\u2019s play an imaginary game.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Suppose you were standing outside the palace gates of a king. As you stood there at the gates, your attire looked something like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you were clothed in filthy rags of whining, coaxing, self-pity, anger, resentment, revenge<\/li>\n<li>you fought for your own rights and pushed your way through life<\/li>\n<li>you always tried to borrow from others the kind of love you desperately needed<\/li>\n<li>you rummaged through garbage pails looking for scraps of self-realization<\/li>\n<li>the life of a pauper was your lifestyle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As you stood outside the palace gates in your filthy drab, you heard the king beckoning someone to come to him and be his bride. \u00a0You look around to see who he is calling, but there is no one else standing at the gate at this time. \u00a0And then you hear him issue the call again.<\/p>\n<p>You look up to the window where he stands, your eyes meet his gaze, and say: \u00a0\u201cYou can\u2019t mean me\u2014why I\u2019m just a pauper. \u00a0I\u2019m not good enough for you. And my appearance, well, I am not the prettiest woman in the world. \u00a0I wouldn\u2019t be a very good helpmate either, because I am just so dumb. \u00a0One of my teachers in school told me I would never amount to anything, and she was right, I didn\u2019t; I\u2019m just a failure. \u00a0No, I can\u2019t marry you; I\u2019m just too unworthy to be your bride. \u00a0But, thanks for asking anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without another word spoken from the king, he stretched forth his hand beckoning you to come into his arms. \u00a0This time, you caught a look of love on his face that you had never ever seen on another. \u00a0It penetrated into the very depths of your heart and you at last realized that, \u201cYes, he wants me!\u201d \u00a0You accepted his proposal, you were quickly ushered into the palace to be with him, and he placed a crown on your head. \u00a0Instantly, your life took on a new identity with the king in the palace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh, my dear friends, <em>this is no fairy tale, it is for rea<\/em>l. \u00a0It is a story about <strong>YOU and ME<\/strong>, and how quickly we transitioned from our pauper state into a place of royalty when we accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. \u00a0Oh, yes, we became the Bride of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. \u00a0You now stand daily in His presence and\u2014<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He sees you as His gift that He delights in&#8212;Ephesians 1:11; Isaiah 62:4<\/li>\n<li>He takes pleasure in you&#8212;Psalm 149:4<\/li>\n<li>He rejoices over you with gladness and singing&#8212;Zephaniah 3:17<\/li>\n<li>You captivate His heart&#8212;Song of Solomon 4:9<\/li>\n<li>You have favor in His sight&#8212;Psalm 84:11; Exodus 33:12; Psalm 4:3; 5:12<\/li>\n<li>He honors you by making you royalty&#8212;Revelation 1:6; Romans 5:17<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enough said! \u00a0Now, if you will excuse me, I think I will just go fill my bath tub with bubble bath, light a candle, turn on the praise and worship music, and hop into the tub with my crown on. Just like Hadley said: \u201c<strong>I\u2019m a Queen<\/strong>!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #89389e;\"><strong>* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Let us pray<\/strong><\/span>: Father God, I thank You for rescuing us out of our pauper state through the shed blood of Your son, Jesus, into a place of royalty. I am overwhelmed when I read in Your Word how much You delight in me, how much You favor me, and bestow honor on me as Your queen. May we all wear the crown and title in a way that will bring honor and glory to Your name by fulfilling the purpose for which You created us to be. In Jesus\u2019 name, I pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hadley, my two-year-old granddaughter, recently spent a week with me. \u00a0And, yes, I pampered her as all grandmothers do their grandchildren. Like most women, Hadley enjoys a bubble bath at the end of a day and I was happy to oblige her. \u00a0One night, along with the rest of the bath toys she likes to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":18117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5040],"tags":[5665,5044,5666,3157,5670,1287,425,5668,649,5669,4514,5671,852,5672,5667,5673,5068,1814,1141,1912],"class_list":["post-18185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christlife-bible-study","tag-chapter-35","tag-christlife","tag-delighted-in-favored-and-honored","tag-ephesians-111","tag-exodus-3312","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-isaiah-624","tag-martha-bush","tag-psalm-1494","tag-psalm-43","tag-psalm-512","tag-psalm-8411","tag-revelation-16","tag-revelation-321","tag-romans-517","tag-ruth-myers","tag-song-of-solomon-49","tag-womens-online-bible-study","tag-zephaniah-317","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cl-delighted-in-favored-and-honored.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4Jj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18185"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18187,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18185\/revisions\/18187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}