2009 – Day 190.July 10 – Ask and Trust

2009 – Day 190.July 10 – Ask and Trust

Passage of the Day: Esther 2: 12 - 18 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: Today in my devotional from his book, Great Days with the Great Lives, Chuck Swindoll points out two things which are essential to becoming the man or woman God has purposed for our lives; and we see these two unfolding in the life of Esther in today’s highlight passage.

The two are to ask and to trust; and like many things about our relationship with God and His transformational power in our lives, the formula is pretty simple; but in the out working, it is far from easy. Ask and trust sounds so simple, doesn’t it? However, when it comes to surrendering to God’s design for our lives (i.e., asking the Lord to reshape us into His image – see 1st Pet. 5: 7) and then trusting God totally with the reshaping process (found in Rom. 8: 28 and 1st Cor. 10: 13), this process, which was illustrated by Esther, is so, so difficult because it requires human surrender and super-human strength, both of which are fashioned by Godly grace, not by human power.

Esther grew to the place where she had favor in the eyes of King Xerxes because she was willing to put herself totally in the hands of God, seen in the preparation of the King’s Eunuch. This Christian ability, which is essential in discipleship, is AVAILABILITY. We cannot become usable for God unless we’re available for Him to do what it takes to transform us into His own image. And that was Esther as she surrendered to Mordecai’s charge and the Eunuch’s preparation. We will never become God’s servant unless we’re willing to ask (in surrender) for His will to be done.

Then, the second ability which must be fostered in the life of the Christian is that of VULNERABILITY; and this is the process of trusting God that He will do whatever it takes to bring us to a place where we can be used BY Him FOR Him. Esther was willing and able to humble herself, again with an attitude of surrender, into the reshaping hands of Her God; and because of this, God poured His transformational grace into this young heroine. My dear one, as we know from God’s word (see Prov. 3: 34 or James 4: 6 or 1st Peter 5: 6, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

We cannot and will not become all God needs for us to be for His purpose, if we resist - in pride - the molding process of the Master. As we’ve noted in past days, looking at Esther, it takes Christlike humility and meekness, to ask and trust God to do HIS THING in our lives … to reshape us into exactly what HE needs for us to be to glorify HIM in all we do. And as we see in Esther’s life, when we humbly ask God and meekly trust Him, His grace is poured into our lives and we can be used for His glory.

Today, I plan to ask God to do whatever it takes to reshape me for service. Will you join me?

Today, and from here on, I plan to trust that God is going to do whatever He deems necessary to remake me into His image. Are you with me?

And as God’s perfect timing would have it for me in my devotional time with God this morning, with my earphones on, listening to Christian praise songs on my Ipod, a song began playing at exactly this moment in my journaling. It was an Alisa Dishong rendering of the old hymn, I Surrender All. You can hear a rather crude version, and read the lyrics by going to this website – linked . What a great way for my Lord to make His point for me. May my Lord be praised!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I know Your grace can only come when I surrender. So, here I am; … reshape me … use me. Amen