2009 – Day 187.July 17 – I Will Stand

2009 – Day 187.July 17 – I Will Stand

Passage of the Day: Esther 4: 12 - 16 … 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!”

My Journal for Today: These last few days, Swindoll (and I) have been wringing the story of Esther to make the appeal to the soul of our readers to take a risk for God, … to stand for the right against the pressures of the world, … to sound the alarm for Godliness even at the peril of life itself. Repeating this by repeating the highlight passage from Esther, my devotional author reminds me of the truth that a good story in a play or movie can inspire many in the audience to make life changing decisions.

Swindoll asks his readers (me or you) to imagine this segment of Esther’s story as a Broadway play; and it is true the story has all the elements of a great Broadway play or musical. There is great drama, for sure. It has a villain in Haman, a beautiful protagonist in Esther, and an inspirational background voice of good in Mordecai. And the storyline builds to the point of life changing inspiration where Esther makes her “if I perish, I perish!” speech. Can’t you just imagine her declaring that line as the curtain drops to thunderous applause?

When I used to go to cowboy & western flicks as a boy with my buddies on Saturday morning, I come out of the Lido theater in Lebanon, Indiana, having seen possibly a thrilling (at least to me) serial where Tarzan or Flash Gordon ended the segment in a near death experience. Then there was a double feature of westerns where Roy Rogers or Lash Larue or Ken Maynard would save the day and ride off into the sunset having saved the day for some family or widow. And in these dramas of life, we boys always knew who the bad guys were; and the good guys always vanquished the foes and stood up for the good in life no matter how harrowing was the risk. And when I left the theater I wanted to go out and BE the good guy and to strap on my guns and do battle for the fair maiden and defeat the enemy.

That’s what I hope – and pray – we all get when we read and meditate on the life of Esther. She is the ultimate heroine; and she’s willing to go to the wall for good against the evil antagonist, Haman. And in the end we know that she’s going to win the day; and evil is going to be vanquished in the name of good … in this case for the Name of God. But do we read the story and come out of this biblical theater with the inspiration to go out and strap on our guns and do battle against our spiritual enemies in life?

That’s the question today; and as I’m sitting here typing about it, I feel the itch to be an Esther and do more to save the day for God’s people. I want to do more to vanquish the evil of abortion, … to take down the evil XXX industry which produces mind altering pornography, … or to share my story with someone who is as lost as I was once in my life. Reading Esther’s story don’t you just want to be the hero or heroine who stands up for God and becomes God’s agent for change and light in this dark world?

How about it, my friends; … let’s go out and do something today to stand for God and for good in this world!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to shine your light and risk even life to save the day for Your Name. Amen