You were made to wear a crown. And you were made to give crowns away. But this is no token symbol or forgotten relic from a bygone era. It’s a choice you have every day. Either wear your crown or someone else will. And choose well who you give your crowns to.
Crowns. They’re a rare commodity in our culture, unless somebody is playing checkers, crying at the end of the beauty pageant, or eating at Burger King with the kids. Presidents, judges and governors take oaths. Congress takes your money. Modern Olympians bring home the gold, but nobody gets a head full of garland any more.
That said, we give and receive crowns all the time. Check out the dictionary for the verb form of “crown” and you’ll find language like:
- To invest with regal power; enthrone.
- To confer honor, dignity, or reward upon.
- To surmount or be the highest part of.
- To bring to completion or successful conclusion; to consummate.
Have you done any crowning lately? I daresay you have. The only question is, who is wearing the crowns you are offering?
For those of us who follow Jesus Christ, we anticipate the ultimate crowning experience. Sooner than you can imagine, your King will return for those He calls His own. You will see with your eyes what you have only imagined – a place He has prepared for you, free of sin and shame. I can’t fully describe the deep satisfaction you will experience as you see Him face to face.
Then there are the crowns. And the crowning.
Worship: The Crown You Offer
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ has already been given all authority in heaven and earth. All things have been put in subjection under His feet, and He has been invested with a name that is above every name. He has been crowned with glory and honor because He successfully finished what He started.
In other words, He’s already been crowned.
And yet He awaits the crown only you can give Him…
- To enthrone Him as your regal authority.
- To honor Him as your greatest treasure.
- To find in Him your highest ambition.
- To trust Him to finish what He started in you.
The word for all that is worship. And in the truest sense of the word, to worship Him is to “crown Him with many crowns.” But the crowns you offer aren’t made of gold or jewels. The crowns you offer are a crown of love.
To worship Jesus is to love Him. To love Him is to crown Him.
Have you done any crowning lately?
The Crown You Receive
John makes an interesting statement about the soon appearance of the coming King:
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2, NIV).
Beautiful promise. We’ll be like Jesus when He appears. So what’s that like? Check this out:
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself (Revelation 19:11-12, NKJ).
Okay, put all this together…
When He appears we will be like Him.
What’s He like? Faithful. True. Piercing in His understanding… And crowned with many crowns.
And what are those crowns? Love. He’s crowned with love.
And what does He do with those crowns? He gives them to you. He makes you like Him. He crowns you with love.
Are you ready to wear your own crown?
- To own your own authority as His child and joint-heir?
- To live with honor and dignity as His beloved?
- To leave mediocre living behind and reach for God’s finest and highest?
- To be faithful not just to start well, but to finish well?
In short, are you ready to live as someone who has been crowned with love by the King of Kings?
A Beautiful Exchange
Today all of this takes place by faith. In faith I offer to Jesus my crowns in worship. And in faith I receive from Him His authority, honor, excellence and faithfulness.
It’s a love exchange – a mutual crowning – borne by faith. But it lives in hope that one day my faith will become sight.
One day I will be with Him. And the One my heart knows by faith today, my eyes will see in all His glory. And in being with Him and seeing Him, I will have all the more reason to crown Him. I will take all the glory and honor and “well done” that He bestows on me and offer it to Him in love. And as I adore Him, He will adore me. And together – the Greater and the much lesser – we will be crowned with love.
Mercy me, I can’t imagine anything more deeply and eternally satisfying.
And so today, we wait. Not in disappointment, but in expectancy. Today I crown Him in worship. And today I choose to wear the crown He has given to me.
All in love.
Care to join me?
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This is beautiful. Thank you.
Thank YOU, Sheyll!
I love this, Andy! I always think of crowning the Lord, but never that He wants to crown us back – and with such great, immeasurable love! Thank you for posting, my friend.
Blessings!
Martha Orlando´s last blog post ..Seek, and Ye Shall Find . . .
Jeez, thanks so much for posting this! It is going to help when I am thinking about going to Regal Exchange 20 in Augusta! I am from Upstate NY so I am not familiar with Augusta. Next time I visit my family will be so much better! Awesome!
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