Monday, January 30, 2006
When you see how cute our three-year-old granddaughter is, it's hard to believe she's actually related to me. But she really is our little princess. I started calling my daughter "Princess" when she was just a baby, and I've never stopped. But I can't help calling our granddaughter that, as well, and she loves princesses. In fact, she's got a princess skirt and top and tiara that she likes to wear around the house sometimes. She looks like Cinderella at the ball. When she answers the phone, I'll say, "Hi, Princess." And sometimes she'll say, "I'm not a princess!" Then, I have been told, she actually runs the phone like a scanner over the jeans and the shirt that she's wearing. I'm supposed to be able to see what she's showing me with the phone. When I ask her why she's not a princess, she lets me know a clear-cut reason, "I'm not wearing my princess clothes."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Princess Unaware."
I always tell my granddaughter, "Honey, I don't care what you're wearing. You're always my princess!" Believe it or not, that's how God feels about a woman who's listening right now. When your Heavenly Father sees you, He sees His princess.
And your reaction may be just like my granddaughter's, "I'm not a princess!" You don't think you look like a princess. Maybe you've been treated like anything but a princess. Or maybe what you do all day doesn't make you feel very special about yourself. You've been settling for so much less than you were created for because you don't realize how much you matter to God. But God is still saying, "However you look, however you've been treated, however insignificant you feel, you're always My princess!"
Hard to believe? Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 6, beginning with verse 16. The Bible says, "We are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be My people.' 'Therefore, come out from them and be separate,' says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'" Now God is "the Lord Almighty," the king of all kings. That's what the Bible says. And God says that if you're a woman in His family, you're His daughter. And what do they call the daughter of a king? Princess!
You are God's handmade, masterpiece creation "fearfully and wonderfully made," the Bible says. ( Psalm 139:14) And you are His very expensive purchase. The Bible says that all of us - even though we were created by God and for God - have rebelled against God. We've hijacked our life from Him, broken His laws and done it "my way" instead of His way. And that leaves us cut off from the Father we were made for. Since He gave you your worth in the first place, you'll never really feel how special you are until you get back to your Father. And that's where the very expensive purchase came in. God loved you so much that, in the words of the Bible, "He gave His one and only Son" ( John 3:16) to die in your place; to pay for the sin that has cut you off from Him.
When Jesus was dying on the cross, most of His disciples were nowhere to be found. But the women were there, whatever it might cost. They had found in Jesus the Savior that they could trust, the One who made them feel clean and valued and safe. He wants to do that for you, if you'll open up your heart to Him and let Him into the life He paid for with His life. No one has ever loved you like He does. No one ever can.
If you've been living without Christ in your heart, if you want to belong to the One who loves you more than anyone, then tell Him that right where you are. "Thank You, Jesus, for dying for the junk of my life. I realize I was made for You. You're the love I've been looking for my whole life and beginning right now, I'm Yours." He said at your invitation, He will move into your life to make you His forever.
If that's what you want, let me invite you to visit us at our website where you'll find my brief explanation of how to get started with Jesus. It's yoursforlife.net. Or I'll send you my little booklet about this called Yours For Life, if you'll just call us at 877-741-1200.
The old fairy tales tell of a prince who comes to rescue the princess. What the Bible says is no fairy tale. The Prince of Heaven came to earth to die to rescue a woman destined to be a princess in God's family. That woman is you.