Yesterday Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away. 

She served on the throne for more than seventy years.

In your daily prayers, I invite you to join in with many others as we pray God’s peace upon her family, and for her eldest son Charles as he takes the throne as the new King.

I thought today would be an appropriate day to share something she said: “It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.”

As someone who was so faithful and consistent and hard-working for so long, she should know.

Something many people don’t realize is that the Queen had an additional title: Defender of the Faith. On December 25, 2016 she said: “Billions of people now follow Christ’s teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them because Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love…”

It is often those “small things” which end up being anything but small. They are the words and actions which—over the long haul—contribute to that ‘building’ and ‘cherishing’ which enrich our relationships and world.

In 2 Timothy 4:7 Paul writes: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Wouldn’t it be great if we could all say that with confidence at the end of our own lives?

With Christ it is possible. So is that powerful perseverance we witnessed in Her Majesty the Queen.

“It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.”

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Notes:

–The podcast version of this devotional is now also available through Amazon Music and Audible! — See links below. 

–The Up Devotional is published 5 days a week and returns on Monday, September 12, 2022.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.