Got excuses?

READ: Esther 4:12-17

Ever felt God calling you to do something? Ever responded with excuses?

If so, you’re like many heroes and heroines of the Bible. For example, Esther. 

Excuse #1 - God’s will is done whether I participate in it or not.

Somewhat true. In Esther’s case, God would save the Jews one way or the other, and Mordecai tells her so. However, as we read in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The call of God is the revelation of that work designed uniquely for you, and when you refuse it, the consequences can be both real and painful. For Esther, Mordecai predicted death. For you, it may be that the hungry go unfed, the lonely fall into depression, or your children grow up not knowing the Lord.

Excuse #2 - I do not have the skills to do what God calls me to do.

Moses was slow of speech and tongue; he felt inadequate to serve as God’s mouthpiece to Israel. The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” (Exodus 4:11-12)

Esther understood the power of God and turned to him in fasting and prayer. “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:14)

Excuse #3 - What God calls me to do is against the rules.

Esther was forbidden from entering the king’s presence unsummoned at penalty of death. In today’s world, many nations forbid proselytizing. Many bosses demand you keep your religion to yourself. Many social circles shun those who profess Biblical truth. Yet as Peter and the other apostles exclaim in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than human beings!”

Excuse #4 - What if I obey God and fail?

As Esther says, “If I perish, I perish.” On the cross, Jesus perished, and yet his attitude was this: “Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 50:7) His perishing was obedience; his obedience, love; his love, God’s glory and our salvation. Take up your cross and follow him.

What Happens When We Pray?

READ: Esther 4:15-17

Is divine petition through prayer and fasting powerful enough to change the course of human events or does God merely use these things to align our hearts with His unalterable will?

Consider the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8). The unjust judge does not grant her request on her first petition, but after many appeals he gives her what she asks. How much more so our Father in Heaven!

Consider also what God says to Jeremiah:

If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. (Jeremiah 18:7-8)

And what Jesus says in Matthew:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

"Why don't I get what I pray for?"

Is scripture then suggesting that God is like a magic genie, eager to grant our every wish if we will just humble ourselves in divine petition? Not exactly …

You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2b-3)

The God who requires our obedience and wills our sanctification will not be granting our sinful desires or prematurely ending the trials that strengthen our faith, but He will grant us the desires of our heart that rest within His permissive will -- if we ask.

Is it Your Time?

The thing about writing a post on a favorite scripture verse(s) is that you don't know where you will end up. Where will the Divine Words take you this time? 

What makes any given verse special to this writer is how it changes my heart each time I study it. "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12 NIV) 

 The verse I want to share today is from the Book of Esther 4:14: ^"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" At different seasons of my life, this verse spoke in differing ways. 

While praying for relief from whatever oppression was encompassing my life on a particular day, these words were heard with new ears. When crying out to God for a reason for the pain I was experiencing during the early days of my Christian walk, these words of Mordecai to Esther touched me. As my life began to fall apart I begged God for the reason He was turning my world upside down.

The Word was the same, but the heart that heard it and embraced it wasn't. Sometimes 'for such a time as this,' conjured up a sense of hope that God's plan was in the making.  Other times this concept confirmed that I was in the midst of His plan and He was preparing me for tomorrow.

When I struggle to understand the why I only need to reflect on the Who and rest in the assurance that God’s got this one.