"For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”. Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go..."
If God is truly sovereign it gives us confidence to act in faith and with intent.
In our lives there are many such moments which are orchestrated... nothing happens by accident. In God's redemptive purposes issues of life and death/ eternal significance come to pivotal junctions. It is at this moment we have to either assert in doubt that our fears outweigh our God, or faith in our God outweighs our fears.
He is the one who holds time in his hands (Psalm 31:15), the one who knows all things about us including our thoughts (Psalm 139:2), our pre-existance (Psalm 139:3, Jer 1:5 ) and His purposes in our location. The truth is that non of us chose where or when we would be born, and yet we assume this mystery as a norm. How many other situations of the ordinary do we miscalculate in magnitude and significance ?
Was it by accident that Joseph in an empty pit without water, happened to be there when Midianite traders passed by and took him ? (Gen 37:25-28) (Gen 50:20). Was it coincidence that Ruth found herself in Boaz's field, at the beginning of harvest? (Ruth 1:22, 2:12, Matt 1:5). Was it coincidence that all their acts of faith are included in the orchestration and symphony of God's redemptive plans (Heb 11:13, 11:22, 32-34)
For many across the world today the ordinary decisions of life have extraordinary consequence. Maybe this is easy to perceive when we consider our friends facing persecution and death for being baptised in Southern Asia, or we can perceive significance in those who stand witnessing for Christ in the face of Godless oppressors (Central Asia, Donbass war, and a myriad of places where the church is detested for nothing more than being an army of love). We must pray for our brothers and sisters in these situations today, that they will act in faith... that their ordinary holy, obedient trust will reap redemptive rewards bigger than they can imagine in the lives of others. However, maybe the greatest challenge is to see our own lives in the significance of the ordinary.
The neighbours on your road and my road have been placed there by God. Our ordinary desire to become their friends and serve them well is from God. When the pivotal conversations come, (and they will), may God help us to act in faith in the moment, to trust the almighty sovereign redeemer and act in faith not fear. If we believe God is truly sovereign (and He is), it should lead us not to theoretical knowledge for our comfort and confinement but for action and mobilisation, to share the gospel with compassion and conviction to those on our doorstep.
Lord help your people today in Tashkent and Kent, in Chitral and Christchurch, Peshawar and Pershore, Use us for your sovereign purposes and your eternal Glory.
“To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
and compare me, that we may be alike?
6 Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!
7 They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
or save him from his trouble.
8
“Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.
12
“Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
you who are far from righteousness:
13 I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,
and my salvation will not delay;
I will put salvation in Zion,
for Israel my glory.”
ISAIAH 46
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