Daughter of the King
Right now I'm sitting in my bedroom writing from home. HOME.
The past year of my life has been spent travelling, moving from place to place every month, exploring new cultures and meeting new people. And I can honestly say it’s been the best year of my life so far!
So when I came home the beginning of August, it was understandably a little hard to adjust to being in one place, specifically being back where I grew up.
Sometimes it’s easy to believe the lies that this season of my life has no purpose. Right now I have no permanent job, not many friends (who live nearby), and I’m unsure of what will happen next in my life.
But God tells me something different. He says this is a season of REST and growing in intimacy with Him. He wants me to TRUST Him and believe there can be purpose in just resting.
Interestingly, I’ve been reading through the Old Testament, and one of the commandments God gave the Israelites was to rest on the seventh day of the week. Resting is a command from God - not just a suggestion or something we should do, but a command.
If that wasn’t enough to convince me, the very same morning I read that in my Bible, the sermon at church was about REST. I don’t think that’s a coincidence… I think God’s trying to get my attention here!
REST and TRUST HIM. This is what I hear God saying to me. This is a season of growing in intimacy with Father God if I will take time to spend with Him every day. He wants to provide for me and teach me what it means to be His daughter.
Since being home, I’ve had a lot of time to think and pray. I’ve been worried about not having a job to save money and provide for myself, but I hear God saying, ‘Just wait - I want to provide for you! But first I want you to just be My daughter.’
There are so many things that try to define us and become part of our identity…. For me, growing up I was defined by the fact that I was home schooled. When I moved to Texas to go to the Honor Academy and School of Worship, I put my identity in what school I went to and the fact that I play piano. On short-term mission trips, I was a ‘missionary’. When I had job, I could define myself by what I did: “I work at a physical therapy clinic.” This past year, I was a World Racer and a missionary. There are so many more examples I could give, and I’m sure you can think of some in your own life, too.
During the week of final debrief for the World Race, one of the speakers talked about identity, and he decommissioned us from being World Racers, from being missionaries, from any other organization or position or title or anything at all we put our identity in. And he commissioned us to be children of God.
And now, I find myself here at home; I’m not working, I’m no longer part of an organization or school, and I’m waiting on God to show me what’s next.
There is beauty in the waiting, because God is teaching me to live in my true identity as His child.
A couple days ago, I was thinking about the word ‘princess.’ Not usually a term I would use to describe myself, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it’s true! I am a daughter of God, the Most High King, which makes me a princess. The reason this stood out to me is because when I think of princesses I think of little girls and child-like faith. I think God wants us to believe with child-like faith that we really are His children.
This is a season of rest, of trusting God and growing in my relationship with Him, of spending time with family and friends while I am home, of enjoying the simple beauty and little moments in life. God is teaching me how to live in my identity as His daughter. Children have no worries because their parents take care of them and they TRUST their parents. God wants us to trust Him in the same way. With our future, our finances, our plans, our relationships.
I hope you can find joy in resting in God, too, no matter where you are in life. He delights in every moment we spend with Him.
