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But to the Son He Says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.  You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions (Hebrews 1: 8-9 NKJV).

One of my fondest memories from my early childhood is family devotions. My father had a knack for creating lyrical gimmicks from scripture recited during these times that would set off my 5-year-old self into frenzied dancing. Now decades later (don’t ask how many), I still remember his catchy tune to ‘Your throne, O God...”. Even more poignant is that I finally think I understand what inspired what I would like to refer to as my dad’s ‘musical creativity’. I also like to believe that it is the same inspiration behind Kanye West's critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated album, ‘Jesus is King’. 

God has exalted the Son to the highest level of honor and has established under Him an everlasting Kingdom. This means that we, having embraced the Son, have become heirs to that same everlasting Kingdom. What was His, now is mine, is ours. Plus, He gives generously to those who ask. The question then becomes what should we ask of the Father?

According to verses 8 and 9, the Kingdom of the Lord is governed by righteousness and it is the Son’s love of righteousness that ushered his honor to royalty. We need to ask the Lord to fill us more with His Spirit. Jesus walked the earth in human form and overcame sin despite all the temptations thrown at him. Satan tried and failed to cause Jesus to sin. The temptations employed by Satan have remained the same over 3000 years and include pride, greed, insatiable desire for power, lust etc. 

However, the same Spirit in Jesus that let Him live blamelessly on earth is available to us, if only we just ask. Truly, the struggle is real. Living a life that is holy and blameless is not natural to humanity. Somewhere deep inside we know the right and just thing to do but we can’t do it. Not alone. God so generously gave us His Son who walked upon the earth and defeated sin and death. When we in turn accept His Son to live inside of us, we inherit that same Spirit which triumphed over sin and death. Jesus did it, and so can we-one day at a time. Thank God that Jesus is King!

Our King’s reign looks like righteousness, peace and joy.  What would a bit more of that righteousness look like in your life at this time?  Take a moment to pray for more of God’s righteousness in you.

Our King’s reign looks like peace.  What would more of the King’s Peace look like in you?  What might it look like flowing from you towards others?  Pray about these things.

And our King’s reign looks like joy.  How could you—and how could our church -- grow in demonstrating the “joy of the kingdom” to the world around us?