ALL IN May devotional – Esther 4:1-16
Are you dipping your foot in the water, or diving head first into the swimming pool?Are you playing it safe, or going for broke?When it comes to our walk with the Lord, we need to cast everything aside and totally surrender ourselves to God.That is what Esther did.She was a young Jewish woman, growing up in a land that was not her own, when the Lord raised her up to be queen.When a plot to completely annihilate her people was uncovered, the only way to stop it was for her to go to her husband, the king.This might seem like an easy task, but in the land of Persia at that time, the law stated that anyone who came into the king’s presence without being summoned would be put to death.There was only one exception to this: if the king extended his golden scepter to that individual.Esther knew the law but the stakes were too high to do nothing, so she decided to approach the king, then declared these words: “And if I perish, I perish” (Est. 4:16).Esther was all in.
If you are familiar with the account of this young, Jewish queen, then you know that the king showed her mercy and extended his scepter to her.She shared the plot to kill the Jews and although the original edict that they be annihilated could not be repealed, the king made a new law which allowed the Jews to assemble and protect themselves, and they were saved.This powerful story should be a call and reminder to each of us to not sit on the sidelines of the Christian life because the stakes are too high and there is no time to waste. Like Esther, we need to be allin.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1