In the recent publication; ‘a tribute for her Majesty’s 90th birthday’ we are challenged by observing her life lived in service to her people. Her commitment to a lifelong vow made to God and the nation has sustained and enabled her to persevere in times of great challenge.
Our Queen clearly recognises that her authority comes from God and not just from our government. The book itself, which is beautifully produced by the Bible Society, HOPE and the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is entitled, ‘The Servant Queen and the King she serves’. This says it all and clearly states that we have a Queen who is not ashamed to confess her faith in the True and Living God. In her foreword to the Book she reminds us of a poem quoted by her father in his Christmas Day speech, broadcast in 1939, which was the year that our country went to war for the second time in a quarter of a century:
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the year; ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown’. And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.’
As a nation we are not at war in the conventional sense but we are engaged in a war against terrorism and all who oppose peace in the world. It is right that as believers we recognise in the spiritual realm there is a war being fought, and often this is played out in the natural across the face of the world as nation rises against nation. What happens in the spiritual realm is often mirrored in the natural realm because the Word of God says that ‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ Ephesians 6 v 12
We have all gone out into the darkness because the Bible explains that this world lies in the arms of the evil one, but we are making our journey with our hand firmly fixed in the hand of God. ‘We are in the world but not of the world’ because we belong to God. We are called to serve the King of Kings who calls us to live with the same type of commitment we have seen in our Queen. God save the Queen and long may she reign over us.
