When the queen of Sheba heard of [the constant connection of] the fame of Solomon with the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions (problems and riddles). . . . When she had come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her mind.
—1 Kings 10:1–2
—1 Kings 10:1–2
Wrong gender, great ruler—that about sums up the life of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Elizabeth ruled what came to be known as the “Golden Age” of history until 1603. In 1588, King Philip II sent the great Spanish Armada to conquer England once and for all.
As the Armada was approaching, Elizabeth said to her troops at Tillbury, “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm.” At the end of her reign, she said to her people, “Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your love.”
I love the fact that Queen Elizabeth followed her heart and ignored her deficits. God will always strengthen those who are willing to look their weaknesses in the face and say, “You cannot stop me.”
Lord, give me the heart of a king in the things that You call me to do. I will not allow my weaknesses to stop me from fulfilling my destiny. Amen.
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