WHEN PRINCES COME

Some people seem to be blessed with a special stroke of fortune on their life. And when your life is a struggle you may not always appreciate their blessings. Heck you may even downright resent them.

However regardless of how we feel about the person, it will seldom change the reality. I wish life was such that there was always a balancing out of such events so that the day came when the pendulum of fortune swung in all directions, but that only happens in the movies. In this life, image and illusion often are like Siamese twins of consequence. One can, if a master of illusion shape and mold a given image that is anything except the expression of truth as it relates to a person’s life.

And while all of that may in some way impact our view of life it doesn’t mean that it represents God’s reality. We might be seduced into the notion that a person’s blessings in this life are always prove of approval with the Lord, but it may not always be the case.

I am reminded of the words of our lord when he said that there were some who are last (in this life) who will be first in Heaven. Basically I think this conveys the idea of how the realities of life here don’t always translate into the realities in eternity.

We see the glitz of prosperity and success in this life and our eyes judge its worth. We are more impressed with wealth and the other tangibles of this life than we are with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That is just being human. And what is sad is when it intrudes into the spiritual realm. When we someone mix together our sense of what is of worth with what God cherishes.

With the Lord we are justified by faith. And trusting God is not a process that will always translate into the kinds of success in this life of which we can boast. Thus for example we might attend some mega-sized church and regard that pastor as a “prince of the pulpit.” Oh the numbers at least suggest that the individual certainly can hold a person’s attention. And it might even suggest the nature of their anointing by the Lord. But as I said it may and that does mean necessarily that it does for sure.

Who can say in the realm of trusting God whether the one who is actually a prince in his eyes is this pastor of a mega-church or some pastor of a small church who keeps trusting the Lord week after week despite the lack of evidence of blessing. His church doesn’t grow, he doesn’t have huge numbers of members and yet he is faithful to his calling.

Or perhaps it is just some follower of Jesus living a very obscure life who is barely getting by. Yet the disappointments never keep the person from doing what God has called them to do.

In eternity we are told in scriptures that the redeem will be given crowns. I’m not sure it is necessarily speaking of a literal crown or more of the type that is a radiance of God’s glory in some way. But in either case we know crowns are given to princes instead of just anyone. And the big question in this life is when God’s real redeemed princes come into our lives will we see them? I pray the answer is yes.