Perfection or Purpose?
If you think about it, the book of Esther would make a pretty good story line for a soap opera. Power, money, beauty, murder, backroom plotting – it has it all. What about the main characters? King Xerxes is drinking all the time. Haman is a conniving weasel. Even Esther, the heroine, comes across like a manipulating female in chapter 8. The most together person is Mordecai, although he advises Esther to lie about being Jewish. You get the idea.
So, what is my point? The point is that God is at work through all of these characters with their weaknesses and defects. He uses them to accomplish His purposes despite their sinfulness. In fact, the Bible is filled with people just like that. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife. Jacob stole Esau’s birthright. David committed adultery and murder.
Even Jesus showed us you don't have to be perfect to be used for His good purpose. He picked out a tax collector, common working men, not educated or highly religious and even one of those he chose betrayed him. God uses them all for His purposes. Thank God we don’t have to be perfect for Him to use us.
God has been planning for how He would use you and me for His purpose even before we were born. Psalm 139:13 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb." Consider that with Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
No where does it say that we have to be perfect to do God’s will. No where does it say that we can’t have character defects in order for Him to use us to further His redemptive plan. No where does it say that you have to be perfect to be a part of His purpose.
In fact, in 2 Corinthians 12:9 Jesus says to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." In other words, when we are weak God’s grace and power shines through. Let us live with purpose in our imperfections.
Read Esther 8 here
Listen to Esther 8 here
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