It’s true, and if you love Jesus, that’s your name, too. There are certain privileges that come with being a child of the one true King. Many of those privileges will be bestowed on us in the life to come, but Jesus did say that he came to give us life, abundant life. Now.

If I am completely honest, and let’s just say that I am about to be completely honest, I sometimes have problems with authority in my life. Just ask Matthew, my husband. As the spiritual leader in our home, he can attest to this problem I have.

As a child of the one true King, I sometimes expect to be treated like a princess. I mean, as a daughter of the King, I am a princess, right? And I have in my own mind what a princess should be treated like. So when people fail to treat me in the way I think I should be treated, well, I can get a bit pouty. When I fail to get what I want from them, I am –however briefly and before good sense takes over- tempted to remind them that I am indeed a child of the one true King, and shouldn’t they just do what I want them to do?

My best friend reminded me that there isn’t any scripture to exactly back up this theory, but it doesn’t stop me from my skewed way of thinking at times. Oh the Bible says plenty about me being part of a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) and it even says that I am a daughter of God (2 Corinthians 6:18). Yet it also says that apart from Jesus, I am nothing. I deserve nothing. Death, apart from Jesus, I deserve death.

So let’s move on from when people don’t give me what I want,  to what about when God says “No” to his child? What am I supposed to think then? I am his daughter. He did adopt me into his family. What am I supposed to think when it feels like He is telling me “No” at every turn? It’s not like I am asking for it to be okay for me to rob a bank and live forever in a life of luxury off my loot. I am asking for things that will allow me to better live out the purpose he knit inside of me before the foundation of the earth… nothing more. Still, He says, “No, child”. What is this child supposed to do?

I must determine I will not live by what I see or by what I feel. I know that I serve a God who can do anything, and who wants, even more than me, to see His purpose lived out in me. One of our pastors tells the story of his four-year-old grandson. As “Grandpa”, he gives his grandson two one-dollar bills to keep. But then he takes a twenty-dollar bill from his wallet and offers a trade. His one twenty for his grandson’s two one-dollar bills. But the four year old doesn’t understand the value of his grandpa’s currency. So he refuses the trade.

Sometimes I don’t understand the currency God is dealing in with me, either. I am so sure that what I want is what is best, that I don’t understand what He has for me is oh so much better.

Bob Goff (Author of Love Does) has said, “Sometimes we won’t get our way. We need to stop acting like we’re going to run away with the circus every time God says, “no”. “

There have been times lately when the circus has looked pretty good to me. But running away, and turning a cold shoulder, is not what a real child of the One True King does. No, a real child of the King recognizes that sometimes “No” is just what makes sense for now. For someone who lives in the now, and must rely on faith for the future, that can be a challenge. For someone who just getting through the day is not enough, and biding my time, is completely frustrating; trusting in God to handle the details of my ability to live out my purpose can be an overwhelming challenge.

But I rest in the promise that Jesus came to make my life, here and now, more abundant. I rest in the promise that God has a plan and a purpose for me and that in His will and in His way, it will come to pass. And when it does, it will be out-of-this-world great. As a child of the one true King, I must learn to wait upon the King.