True faith takes action.
The story of Esther centers around a young Jewish maiden who rises to become queen of the ancient Persian empire. Soon after becoming queen, a plot is discovered to eliminate her people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom. Mordecai, her older cousin who raised Esther as a daughter, poses that it may be that she has risen to her role as a protector of her people.
Esther 4:13-14 – “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
Esther must appear before the king, but the law states that one cannot show up to the king unannounced upon penalty of death. However, he could show mercy by extending his scepter and accept them.
Esther 4″15-16 – Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
Undissuaded, Esther chooses to seek God’s favor by faith through fasting and prayer. She then boldly goes before the king to present her case.
This level of faith is exemplary for all believers. To have such a recognition of one’s own position, knowing the outcome could result in either way coming to pass yet still choosing to carry it out in faith, is the very definition of the word. Faith takes action based on one’s knowledge of God, not solely on one’s basic understanding of a situation.
This is the basic premise of the entire Bible stretching all the way back to Eden. Were Adam and Eve to trust what God said, or to trust their own senses and their own assessment of the situation? Every believer faces these types of decisions every day where we have the opportunity to trust what God says or what our situation demands relying on our own knowledge.
For Esther, her faith was rewarded and the plot was made known and overthrown. Her knowledge of God and faith in him allowed her to affect God’s protection for his people in that time.
For us to know God better we need to know his Word where he reveals himself. As we learn of his character and will, we grow in knowing him better and better until it becomes natural to exhibit the same type of faith as Esther.
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