“Breathe. Just remember what will happen if you don’t at least try. You’re wearing his favorite dress. Everyone’s praying and fasting. You’re in God’s hands now.” Esther had to be thinking along these lines as she entered the king’s inner court uninvited. No one, under threat of death, entered that place without first receiving a summons from the king (Esth. 4:11). But something bigger than her own life compelled her.
Esther’s story could have ended sadly. She was an orphan, ripped from her Uncle Mordecai’s care to compete with other women in becoming queen. At her uncle’s advice, she kept her Jewish heritage a secret, as she was in a hostile kingdom. She’d lost her home, her identity, and her plans for the future. Esther could have become bitter, allowing riches and her situation to blind her, and ultimately turned her back on her people and her God. Yet she didn’t.
Sometimes everything around you will be screaming for your attention, but God won’t compete. He’s a jealous God, but He’s also patient. He will wait for you to choose Him. If you plan on fulfilling the call of God on your life like Esther did, magnifying Him above all else is not merely an option—making God bigger in your focus is a daily choice you must be committed to. In Andrew’s Discover the Keys to Staying Full of God book, it says:
You need to get to a place where you can honestly say, “God, You’re more important to me than anyone or anything else. Nothing will compete with You.” Intentionally glorify God and disesteem everything else.
One of the reasons Esther was able to fulfill her purpose and protect her heart was because she glorified God. The book of Esther does not say outright that she did, but I surmise that how she handled difficult situations speaks to her heart’s attitude toward the Lord.
When Mordecai told Esther about the royal decree commanding all Jews to “be destroyed” (Esth. 3:9), she initially balked at countering this evil. Mordecai, though, warned her essentially not to think herself above the decree, just because she was queen. He then encouraged her to speak with the king, even if it meant losing her life, because what if “thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esth. 4:14). Then Esther called the Jews to fast and pray with her before taking that risk.
Andrew mentions in his book:
Sometimes I have to literally shut out what’s going on in my life and force myself to focus on God. I have to turn away from looking at the natural circumstances and choose to magnify and glorify God.
And that’s exactly what Esther was doing.
Like Esther, we need to choose to glorify God above everything else. So, when we come to a crossroads of what our flesh would prefer and what God wants us to do, we are already full of God through our focus and attitude. And if we perish, we perish (Esth. 4:16). But, praise God, when we lay down our lives for Him, He more-than-abundantly restores us. And because Esther was willing to stay full of God instead of herself, an entire race was saved.
You, too, were made for this time. Check out the book of Esther for the full story. If you’d like to learn about more ways to stay full of God, get Andrew’s Discover the Keys to Staying Full of God teaching.
