ARE YOU ROYALTY?

I Sam. 17:4, 32, 33 4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 32 David said to Saul, “Let …your servant go and fight him.” 33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”

II Sam. 7:8-9 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.”

It is no mystery why the world saw David as a simple shepherd boy. They couldn’t see beyond what he did in the fields, but God saw into his heart. Where the world saw a simple shepherd boy, God saw a king.

I have a pretty bad past. I grew up in a home with an addict father. I spent most of my life avoiding his lifestyle until something tragic happened to me. That event of abuse spurred me to run from God for a few years, in which I did some things I'm not proud of.

Praise God I turned my life around and sought Him with all my heart, but the world might say, “She's a victim” or “I'm damaged goods.”

For years I walked in that belief. I went down to the altar almost every Sunday, begging God to forgive me of my past and going to counseling to help deal with the abuse. I was worried that God could never use someone like me.

Until one day, a woman said to me at the altar, “If you keep thinking about the past, and worrying about the future, you’ll miss the blessings God has for you today.”

She was right. I was no longer a victim to my past. I needed to let go, and think about how God saw me. When He looked at me, He saw the blood of Jesus Christ which set me free.

Gal. 5:1 So Christ has truly set us free.

Today when I start to worry about what others think about me or about mistakes I've made, I remember that God sees me as a “queen.” The only thing I need to be concerned about is… “Is He is happy with me?”

As you seek to draw closer to God, you have to begin to let go of your past. You can’t move forward in your faith, if you’re still held back by the enemies anchor of regret and shame. Christ has taken all our pain, paid the price, and invited us into his family, therefore, we are royalty. It's time to start living like it.