Mt 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
:20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust destroys and wehre thieves do not break in and steal.
:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
:22 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye
is good, your whole body will be full of light.
:23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that
darkness!
:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
We have been entrusted with resources – time, ability,
opportunity. We decide how to use them. Let’s use them for God’s glory and not
waste them.
Esther 4:1 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he
tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of
the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry.
:2 He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no
one might enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.
:3 And in every province where the king’s command and decree
arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and
wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
:4 So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the
queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take
his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them.
:5 Then Esther called
Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she
gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was.
:6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that
was in front of the king’s gate.
:7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and
the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to
destroy the Jews.
:8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their
destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther, and
explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make
supplication to him and plead before him for her people.
:9 Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
:10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for
Mordecai:
:11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s
provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king,
who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one
to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself
have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.”
:12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.
:13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think
in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the
other Jews.
:14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief
and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your
father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom
for such a time as this?”
:15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:
:16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and
fast for me: neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I
will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and
if I perish, I perish!”
:17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that
Esther commanded him.
Esther must not have heard about the decree until Mordecai
told her.
Knowing the king is easily influenced by others, Esther was
hesitant to go to him without him requesting her.
Mordecai is sure that God will deliver the Jews one way or
another. He tells her maybe she was put there just for this reason.
Esther was fearful approaching the king, but God wants us to
approach His throne with confidence, not fear.
To get close to God, we must spend time with Him in prayer,
bible study, and occasional fasting.
Fasting is not only about not eating, it means spending that
time seeking God.
God always puts His people exactly where He wants them to be
for His purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment