Welcome back to Word Wednesday! It’s week 17 of the challenge. How’s it going out there? If you want to join in, feel free to comment below or to blog at your own site and leave a link for us. Can’t wait to dive into the book of Esther. It’s one of my favorites in the Bible. So much happens, and God shows Himself mightily… even though He is never mentioned by name in the book. Still, I think I have to go with one of Esther’s most well-known verses as my favorite:
Esther 4:14b (NIV)–And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?
My birthday was Monday. And so was the ninth anniversary of God’s deliverance in my life. No more fear!!! The year He worked that miracle and healed me from a battle with agoraphobia and panic disorder, the school where I taught chose this as our theme verse. It was so true for me in that year. Had it not been for that school and those teachers and the Bible study I was led to there… I wonder how God would have chosen to deliver me? He definitely had me there “for such a time as this.”
I lean on this verse a lot. Sometimes I don’t want to move again. (Fourteen years of marriage… Nine state-to-state moves… Eleven different houses… And counting.) Sometimes I don’t want to change jobs again. Find a new church again. Make new friends. Again and again and again. But this verse reminds me that God sends us where He wants us to go, and the important thing is looking around to see what He asks of us while we’re there. Sometimes it’s to rest. Sometimes it’s to dive in over our heads in service. Sometimes it’s trials, blessings, lessons, growth… Sometimes someone helps us, and sometimes we get to help somebody. But always, the key is to know that we are where we are because God has put us in a specific place at a specific time for a specific reason.
It’s not just major life moves. Are you in the line at the grocery store just in time to chat with the lady who thinks no one can see her pain? At the library just in time to hold the door for the woman struggling with a baby on her hip and one in a stroller? This life isn’t arbitrary, folks. God doesn’t do things without a reason. What’s the reason? To quote the unstoppable Ferris Bueller, “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
-JB
Dawn Lucowitz says
Esther 4:14
It appears I went with the same verse as Jodie this week.
For is 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?
In this verse, Mordecai is persuading Esther to help save the Jews from the King.
There are a few things that stick out in this verse for me. First, Mordecai is implying that if it’s God’s will, no matter what they do or don’t do, God’s will shall come to pass. The part that really stuck out to me this week was the second part. Mordecai points out to Esther that this particular moment could be the reason she was put into this position to begin with.
There are so many times in life that I wonder why I am where I am. God’s timing and plan is perfect, we just don’t always see it. I love when we do have those moments where God lets us see his plan through. Those are the most amazing moments and reminders that God is God and only he can see and know everything that is going to happen before it is going to happen. It’s those God moments that are that amazing reminder of his awesome awesome power. There have also been so many times that I look back in my life, at times that just didn’t seem to make sense at all, and I am able to see that, yes, God had a plan all along.
As I was sitting here writing my thoughts on Esther, I went back to Jodie’s blog and read her post from the 19th. I don’t know why or how I missed reading it before, but it now makes this verse mean even more to me this week. I can’t imagine what Jodie’s friend and family are feeling right now. I can’t imagine that any words can comfort them right now. And it seems so trite to say that God’s timing is perfect and there is a reason for everything, but we know that it is. This timing for her and her family seems like the absolute worst timing for anything, but God has a reason that all this is happening when it is.
I pray that as I face struggles and tough time, and change, and uncertainty that I will remember this verse and be comforted in knowing I am where I am suppose to be.
Jodie says
Beautiful! I struggle so much with God knowing what is going to happen and using it for His glory, but I am so glad to know He does know, whether I am struggling or not! And, like you, I totally love those moments when God lets us look back and see his plans all fall into place. He doesn’t always do it, but when He does… wow! (Wonder if that’s why I keep running into you everywhere I go… Hm.)
Jason says
I love the book of Esther…no mention of God but his fingerprints are all over it. I try to cling to it many times because I’ve often felt as if I’ve moved places for no real purpose or that I’m somewhere for no reason at all.
Jodie says
I know what you mean. And I like to think that one of the messages of Esther is that, even if we’re not talking about him, he’s still around.
Jen says
I chose that same verse at first, but then 2:7-8 jumped out at me. I don’t have my Bible with me, but it talks about Mordecai taking an orphaned Esther in and raising her as his own.
It’s a little-known fact outside my family circle, but I’ve always had dreams of becoming a foster parent and/or adopting. Like teaching, it’s just something I know I’ll do one day. I loved these verses because, while God certainly had Esther in that place for a reason, what if Mordecai hadn’t given her a chance? Sure she was family, but (at least in today’s society) how often do apparently single men agree to raise their younger cousins? Not often. Yet it’s because of HIS dedication to HER that the people were saved.
Every child is capable of making a difference, but they first need to feel a sense of worth and belonging. “Forever families” can provide that… and in the process, change more lives than just their child’s.
Jodie says
I did not know this little known fact, but I can sure see it! I never thought of it that way, about Mordecai’s part in Esther’s being where she was. I’ve got to chew on that one for a while. I want it to sink in…