Lent Day 10: Come up Higher
Mar 16 in Lent
We come back to the book of Esther. Having lost both her parents she was brought up by (her older cousin in fact) Mordecai; we know that she was beautiful and was kidnapped, along with many other girls, by the King who was looking for a new wife. Taken to the palace, she was to be prepared as a bride. Not being chosen meant she faced becoming a concubine in the King’s harem for the rest of her life… and so we know the story, how she was elected, how what initially seemed like a total catastrophe was God strategically positioning her to save her people, “chosen for such a time as this” and how God delivered His people causing he who prepared a net for them to fall himself into it … Mordecai, a very important character in the story became “second only to King Ahasuerus,” “one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation”.
Purim was instituted to celebrate and remember this victory. It shows how prayer and fasting can change and affect the direction of a nation. Part of that triumph was in Esther’s willingness to listen and obey Mordecai’s council and instruction. There was a time to be silent and conceal who she was, there was a time to pray, fast and seek God’s plan and there was a time to speak up. She was directed at all times by God’s plan; where humanly there was no chance, God made a way. He can turn all things around for those who love Him. At her point of crisis Esther was given a higher vision of what God was doing, she changed positions from being a victim of circumstance to becoming a part of the solution.
We need to rise up in our circumstances, to receive an eagle’s-view of the situation as God sees it and hear Him, so that we may do our part in bringing His purposes into our and others’ lives. It is then that He is able to move mountains, for we are walking for once in His will and not trying to figure things out by ourselves or being tossed by every wave that comes our way. We have a God who makes a way where there is no way, “for nothing is impossible with God” He can “make a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters” what a Mighty God we serve!