Courage for Life for Women - Flipbook - Page 19
C O U R AG E O U S W O M E N O F FA I T H
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Queen Elizabeth II
A COMMITMENT TO SEL FL ESS SERVICE
Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926. She joined public service
at the age of fourteen and married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,
at the age of twenty-one. In a 1947 radio broadcast, given on her
twenty-first birthday, Elizabeth pledged to all the people of the British
Commonwealth that she would devote her entire life to serving her
people—regardless of how long or short her life would be. She famously
ended the address by asking God to help her keep her vow.
In February 1952, Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, died. She
immediately became queen, assuming the throne at the age of twentyfive. In her first Christmas broadcast as queen, Elizabeth asked her
people to pray for her, particularly that God would give her wisdom
and strength to serve both him and her people faithfully all the days
of her life.
Throughout her long reign, Queen Elizabeth II spoke about her
personal faith in Christ. She strove to live her life according to the
standards of Christ’s teachings, knowing that she was accountable to
God for the responsibilities he gave her.
Queen Elizabeth II embodied a life of service. She did not live merely
to do as she pleased but gave herself wholeheartedly to Christ in a life
of selfless service through her role as a global leader (Mark 10:43-45).
In God’s kindness, he helped the queen keep the vow she made to her
people on her twenty-first birthday by empowering her to faithfully
reign for an astonishing seventy years—making her the longest-serving
female head of state in world history.
If you are a born-again Christ follower, you, like Queen Elizabeth II,
belong to God’s royal family and are called to embody the virtue of
selfless service. Would you consider courageously giving yourself to
God to accomplish his purposes in the world? How will you begin living
a life of selfless service for God’s Kingdom today?
Learn more about Queen Elizabeth II’s courageous story in The Faith of Queen Elizabeth:
The Poise, Grace, and Quiet Strength behind the Crown by Dudley Delffs.
