2009 – Day 191.July 11 – Make A Difference

2009 – Day 191.July 11 – Make A Difference

Passage of the Day: Esther 2 – 3 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: It’s like the plot of some animated melodrama from the Disney corporation. You know, there is always a princess who is the fair maiden, our heroine; and there is a villain, who, for some reason, has great hatred for the princess and all those aligned with this fair damsel in distress. And just before the final confrontation of good and evil in these Disney princess sagas, it appears that all is lost.

And here we are today in Esther’s life. She has become the Queen of the Meads/Persians; but Haman, who has a morbid hatred of Mordecai, has been elevated to major domo of the kingdom; and Haman, the agent of evil in this saga, plots to have Mordecai eradicated along with all of his people, the Jews. And at the end of Chapter 3 in today’s study, we read of the effect that all of this melodrama had on the people of Susa, the capital of Persia, at the time.

And that’s always the case when evil is allowed to flourish in the world. And right now, as I study this passage, I think of the horror which comes to the fore when God allows evil in the world to be loosed for a season. You can read about that in Romans 1: 18 – 32 [linked here] . When mankind seeks mass eradication of God’s people or rebels against His Law in a major way, there is always a time of mass confusion, quandary, and even panic. Think of what went on just before WW2, when the Third Reich was moving to eradicate the Jews. Think of what is happening now as millions of innocent babies are being eradicated under the guise of “freedom of choice.”

Evil on the loose always produces polarization and panic. And that was the case just before the hammer of Haman fell upon all of Mordecai’s people. However, though God allowed Satan to have his way for a season, there was, as Paul Harvey used to proclaim of his story-telling segments, “… the rest of the story.” And if you’ve read on ahead or studied the life of Esther, as God had always promised in His word, He would never leave, nor forsake His people (see Deut. 31: 6, 8 or Joshua 1: 5 or Hebrews 13: 5). And as we’ll see in subsequent study, God had prepared Esther to be one person who would stand for the right in the face of evil. But we’ll get to the “rest of the story” very soon in this devotional study.

Right now we need to pause and ask ourselves, “When I’m given the opportunity to stand in the gap for Christ in this evil world, do I do so? Am I strong as was Mordecai? And am I just the one who has been placed at just the right place, at just the right time, to make a difference for God? When someone at work mocks Godliness, do I stand up and make God’s way known to those around me? When the gay lobby is pushing hard for gay marriage, am I doing anything to stand for God’s truth? Am I willing to be labeled as a “Christian” for standing – in public – against the evil of abortion?” Or the question which rings so true in my ministry life, “Am I doing enough in this day of Satan’s stronghold of pornography to show the world that God hates this evil depiction of the sexual life He created for mankind?”

But the temptation is to think, “I am only one! How can I make a difference?” Well, Mordecai was only one. And as Esther’s life unfolds for us, we see that she had to decide that God could/would use her as only one. But this is not the only such narrative in Scripture showing the power of one to make a difference in the world for God’s glory. Think of Moses or Noah or Gideon or Elijah or Nehemiah or … for that matter, Jesus or the Apostle Paul. In their day and in their time, they were only one bell of truth ringing forth in a world filled with the confusing noise of evil. They were just one light shining into the darkness of the world.

BUT (again – a very big “BUT”) … their ringing or light made difference; and God’s kingdom and His word became truth because of these single voices standing for God in their day and in God’s time. What can we do today … this week … and this year to follow Christ’s command in Matthew 5: 16 to be one light shining in the darkness? I have to answer that one for me … just as you do … for you. But what I do know is that God will always be with me and even going ahead of me to bring glory to Himself for what I might say or do today.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be on who makes a difference for you today. Amen