Mordecai Expedited the Plan

10/3/2011 9:23:08 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                             Focus:  He expedited the plan

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                         Reference:  Ester 4:15-17

                Message of the verses:  “15  Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16  "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish." 17  So Mordecai went away and did just as Esther had commanded him.”

                We come to the issue of fasting again, and as I have already written about fasting in an earlier SD I wish to quote what Dr. Wiersbe says about this subject in this SD:  “Fasting and prayer are frequently found together in Scripture, for fasting is preparation for concentrated and humble prayer.  (See Ezra 8:21-21; Psalm 35:13; Daniel 9:3; Acts 13:3).  Of itself, fasting is no guarantee that God will bless, for fasting must be accompanied by sincere humility and brokenness before the Lord (Isa. 58:1-10; Joel 2:12-13; Matt. 6:16-18).  If fasting is only a formal religious ritual, it accomplishes no spiritual purpose.”

                We can see that the crisis at hand is bringing a revival throughout all of the kingdom of Persia by all of the Jews that were living there.  Even though God is not mentioned in the book of Ester his fingerprints are all over the book.  The Jews were humbling themselves before the Lord and fasting and praying which are great ways to begin a revival.

                The portion of Scripture that Ester tells Mordecia “If I perish, I perish” is kind of hard to truly understand for it could mean that Ester is saying that I will go along with what you are asking me to do but if I die I will just die.  This could also mean that she was trusting in the Lord to bring about exactly what He had planned for this crisis and whatever He has planned for Ester was ok by her.  I lean towards the second because of knowing the rest of the story and how Ester acted in this great drama, bringing glory to the Lord through her actions.

                As we look at this drama building we can see that there is a lot of things that are against Ester including the law that does not allow her just to stop in and see the king, or the law that was to kill all of the Jews in a few months.  Being a woman was actually against her for we have seen how the king treats the opposite sex.  The officers at the court were against her for they were only looking out for themselves.  Even with all of this against her Ester moved forward believing that God truly had a purpose for her being where she was at this time in her life.  Romans 8:31 says “if God be for us, who can be against us?”  The answer, by faith of course is nothing.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I am convicted by is the word humbling, and that is a word that I suppose if hard for a lot of people.  Could it be that pride and humility are opposites and that means that the reason why it is hard to be humble is because of pride, pride in that one does not want to admit their mistakes, or when they are wrong?  When I was young, and in school I remember a song that was sung by Roger Miller that still rings in my ears from time to time.  The portion of the song that I remember is “Pride is the chief cause in the decline of husbands and wives.”  For a singer singing a song that was kind of country it surely makes a lot of sense to me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.        Pride comes before a fall.

2.       Humility is better than pride.

3.       Continue to learn contentment.

10/3/2011 9:55:55 AM