Crowned For GREATNESS

Lately, I’ve been highly reflective, especially concerning the past four years of my life. Essentially, my college years are the totality of my true walk with God. Of course, I’ve identified as Christian my entire life, but it was only at the beginning of 2019 that I rededicated my life to Christ and began to build up a relationship with Him. On September 1, 2019, I was baptized at my church. And all I can think about now is just how much has changed. From that moment until now, four years later, my life has been completely different. How I know God, what I value, relationships – everything is different.

I look forward to seeing the woman I’ll be even 10 years from now. Honestly, all that I do now is to become that woman God called me to be, a woman of purpose and destiny. There are many lessons I can highlight, but there’s one that's really important: Life isn’t all pain. This is probably something that we all understand, but it’s still worth saying. My faith walk has been smeared with various painful circumstances – losing friendships, grieving my grandmother, feeling rejected, and other details I’ll spare you from hearing. But there’s been a lot of beauty in it too, like accomplishing things I never thought possible, building fruitful relationships, and experiencing God’s restoration in various places. Pain makes Purpose that much more meaningful. There’s beauty in your mess.

Last week, I wrote down a blog post concept, “I’m not damaged goods.” As a Christian, I’ve gotten past the sins we consider so worldly, like promiscuity, sexual immorality, drinking, smoking, partying, cursing, and so on. Those aren’t the sins I struggle with, although I found that those are simply the ‘surface sins’ that prevent real healing. A purposeful woman is a HEALED woman. But do you know how much pain we must endure to even become healed? It’s scary for me to even think about it. I believe after we surpass the surface sins, we have to attack belief systems and word curses. Often, I find myself feeling like I’m not enough or damaged because of a belief system. Even as I continued to navigate feelings of rejection, I’ve found it to be rooted in a pattern of belief and analysis that, most times, isn’t even true.

There are some things God is working out of you so that He can work IN YOU!

“But that’s not all! Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” – Romans 5:3-5 TPT

It’s inevitable that you will face pain in life. Whether it’s a broken relationship, loss of a job, a loved one passing, etc., pain is a part of the contract we sign once we are born into this world. But, the assignment of the enemy is to make you bitter due to the pain you experience. The enemy wants you to stop trusting God because your prayers have gone unanswered. The enemy wants you to sulk in discouragement because the relationship didn’t work out. The assignment of the enemy is to keep you down, and he employs agents – or people – to even speak negative words to and around you that seep into the depths of your soul. Thus, you begin to ponder and believe these words, so much so that you act on them without realizing and put yourself in the painful cycles of surface sins. The cycles of sin allow the enemy to trap you without doing anything new – in fact, this convinces us that we messed ourselves up and there’s no way out of it. But none of this is true.

You aren’t damaged goods, and this life isn’t all pain.

God wants to use your brokenness and reveal that in the midst of your uglyness, He’s creating something beautiful. The only way for us to see the more life has to offer us is when we begin walking in the truth of God’s Word. What do I mean by this?

Psalm 8:4-5 CSB says, “what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor.”

I read this scripture the other day, and it truly stuck with me. It says God crowned us, humanity, with glory and honor. This simply means that when God crowned us with these things, our lives must align. If I’m crowned with glory and honor, my life will bear glorious and honorable fruits. If what you are experiencing right now doesn’t align with glory and honor, may I announce to you that your glory and honor are coming! In fact, I’m convinced that even in the midst of your painful mess, there’s still something so glorious and honorable about it. Perhaps, your pain is proof that God is God because when you get out of this, all you will be able to say is thank you, Lord!

As I’ve reflected over these past four years, I can truly see the marks of God’s grace in my life. Many times I ate the bitter fruit that life offered and lost sight of the greater God I serve – but even in that, God has been more than faithful. While I’m writing these words, I realize now that what people have been telling me is true. What you go through is about more than just you. The greater your pain and trials, the more anointed you may be. The trials we face are a direct reflection of the calling we have. Maybe the reason you’re struggling so much, while others around you are relaxing in their blessings, is because GOD CALLED YOU TO MORE! It’s not to say what they have is bad, but it is to say what you carry is MORE.

So, in all that I’ve written, my encouragement to you is simple – look past the pain and see the greater. God is using your painful season to produce something beautiful in you (hints what Romans 5:3-5 says above). All you see isn’t all there is. God has an assignment for your life, regardless of your mess. Your past, or even your present, doesn’t disqualify you from God’s use. Allow the pain you’ve experienced to fuel your desire to know God more. There’s a unique anointing you’re called to produce, but it requires depth in the Spirit. Go DEEPER! Know God MORE! And allow Him to use you for greater works. You are marked for greatness, but every great thing takes TIME and PROCESSING. Therefore, you must endure. All in all, please remember, you are CROWNED with GLORY and HONOR – so don’t forget your crown just because life has gotten harder. You are crowned for GREATNESS!

SCRIPTURES TO HOLD ONTO –

• "We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal." – 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

• "And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified." – Romans 8:30 CSB

• "Even when it seems I’m surrounded by many liars and my own fears, and though I’m hurting in my suffering and trauma, I still stay faithful to God and speak words of faith." – Psalm 116:10-11