How to Ruin One Night with the King in 2 Simple Steps

The king decided to take his new bride out for a night on the town.

He booked reservations at the best restaurant in town – very pricey but the food was sure to wow his bride. He made plans for a moonlight walk by the river and then booked a room at a very exclusive Inn. Everything was going to be perfect!
He dressed up to look his finest and couldn’t wait to show his bride a great time. He was ready and waiting as she emerged from her dressing room and he was taken again by her beauty and charm just like the first time he saw her.
They arrived at the restaurant and were seated at a private balcony table. Needless to say, dinner was amazing.
The waiter brought the check and as soon as it touched the table, to the king’s surprise, his bride immediately snatched it up. At first, he thought she was just having fun and making a joke before handing him the bill.
She stretched out the bill and began to look over all they had ordered until she got down to the total price. Her eyes opened wide and she glanced back and forth between the king and the check with increasing panic.
The king asked her for the bill and, as she refused, she began to mutter and mumble to herself getting louder by the second until others could hear. The king made another attempt to retrieve the bill but she was determined she was going to pay for dinner.

It was becoming more and more awkward as she started to cry and draw more attention to their once private dinner with her worried, now dramatic, muttering and tears.

The king knew his bride was used to providing for herself on a limited income before they were married but, what he thought was a playful game is now a full-blown, drama-fest melt down!

She began to pace around the table with check in hand promising the restaurant manager that she would pay and simultaneously saying she had no idea how she was going to pay a bill that size.
Meanwhile, the King had called in their driver to help him get his bride back to the vehicle to return home.
Date officially over. No moonlight walk, no dancing by the river and for sure no special overnight with his bride at the Inn.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

A king with unlimited resources has a new bride that he adores and never expects her to pay her way again and yet she insists on paying for things she can’t afford.
And, even worse? What was going to be a night to remember never happened because of a stubborn determination to pay her own way.

As ridiculous as it sounds, this scenario happens on a regular basis. We have a King that adores us but sometimes we still insist on paying for things we can’t afford that have already been paid.

He has paid all of our need and wants to be close to us but so many times we kill intimacy with Jesus when we insist on earning His love, provision and affection.

How to ruin a night with the King?

1. Take the check

2. Don’t give it back

Don’t even think of snatching the check, the bill is paid! Jesus hates condemnation and our attempts to be self-sufficient that steal opportunities to be close and receive from Him.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans‬ ‭8:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” Romans‬ ‭3:24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1:22-23‬ ‭NLT‬‬