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"Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day"
(Esther 4:16a)
"Tomorrow would like I on the beach go." Yikes. Did that sentence just come out of my mouth? Well it sure did a couple weeks ago. It is shocking to me how often I misspeak in English the more and more I learn German. Even though I have spoken English my entire life, I have started to make silly mistakes like this one where I spoke a sentence in English but with German grammar structure, which just sounds ridiculous. As my brain is forced to operate so often in a foreign language, the language that is most natural to me begins to fade a bit in my mind.
It is so easy for this same thing to happen in our spiritual life. When we're not surrounded by godly things, God's people, and in particular God's word, it is easy to forget that God is working all around us all the time–something that, in our hearts, we know to be true. This week, we are discussing the truth from the book of Esther that even when you don't directly hear from God or see Him working, He is always present, always working, and always sovereign.
Esther found herself in Persia as the wife of a worldly king who did not fear God. While Esther is not meant to be understood as a role model in all of her behavior and decisions, she did remember to rely on the Lord when facing a very challenging and even life-threatening situation. For anyone, even Esther, to approach the king without being summoned was an offense punishable by death, unless the king accepted the person and spared them. However, Esther courageously decided to go and plead for her people at the risk of her own life, as well as to reveal her own Jewish identity in the process. Despite being surrounded by other influences, Esther remembered the Lord. How easily she could have forgotten or tried to act on her own power, but she didn't.
Before she embarked on her defining moment, she requested something of her cousin, Mordecai.
"Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16)
Just because we don't directly see God at work doesn't give us a license to take matters into our own hands. The wise person would recognize their desperate need for God's help, even in seasons where they can't see or discern what God is doing. Esther was wise enough to call upon the Jewish people to fast as she prepared to go and advocate for them before the king. In the Old Testament, fasting is always accompanied by prayer so we can safely assume that Esther was also asking the people to pray for her for these three days. She assembled the people of God to spend intentional time focusing on the Lord, fasting and praying on her behalf.
Are you having trouble seeing how the Lord is working in your life right now? Don't stop praying! Do you feel as though you haven't heard God speak to you in a long time? Don't cease to cry out to Him! The truth is that He is near. He is working. He is sovereign. He is able. He hears you. The enemy would love to silence your prayers and make you believe that if you don't hear God speaking to you, then why should you speak to Him? But it is a lie that God isn't speaking. He speaks through His word. He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
Continue to pray and fast as you seek the Lord's face.
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