Know the Times

Nena Arias | July 19, 2021

“…born for such a time as this.”
(Esther 4:14)

If you know anything about God, the Creator, you can boldly declare that it is no accident you were born and are alive on the face of this earth at this time by God’s design. He put you where you are today and surrounded by the people you are with for a reason. That’s right, God planned it for you that way. He is that personal with every one of us. No detail in all his creation is just because or a mere product of a law that he put in place.

This fact puts a great responsibility on our shoulders to find out who we are, why we are here and to know what we are supposed to accomplish in our earthly journey.

Image: Mike Savad

If you take the time to enquire of God, you will discover that he has a master plan that he is working out and he gives every person that is born the privilege to be included in that master plan to accomplish a part of it, if we want to be. God will accomplish his purpose with us, without us or despite us. He has given us a free will and we can either choose to serve his purposes or not. If we refuse, he will find someone else who will serve him. Either way, he will accomplish his purposes.

The story of Queen Esther in the Bible is very interesting and clearly shows how much is riding on our obedience to God’s plan because nothing is ever too small to manifest the power of God. In Esther’s case, the life of the entire Hebrew nation was at stake. When Queen Esther’s uncle Mordecai told her the words of Esther 4:14, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” She knew what she had to do and her response in v.16 was, “I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

Difficult times always require great sacrifice. We must be willing even to perish for the heavenly causes we are called upon to do. Others did it for us and we must be willing to do it for God and others. Every generation has these heavenly causes to participate in. We are called upon to produce much fruit for God’s purposes. All people, especially Christians, on the side of good will most likely face the same dilemmas that will require selfless sacrifice for the good of others. Any conflict can be a trial where one faces possible rejection, opposition, and criticism of some kind for standing on the side of God and truth. The question is, are we understanding the times we are living in and are we recognizing what needs to be done to do God’s bidding? Will we speak up when called upon, or will re remain silent?

I have been looking at the lives of the outstanding biblical characters such as Noah, Abraham, Samson, and some of the prophets like Daniel and Jeremiah and even the life of Queen Esther which we are mentioning and how all of them had to stand up and be counted for God’s purposes in their time. God was depending on them to serve him with some or all of their capacity for very specific purposes. Thank God they were all willing despite their faults.

With all the turmoil that is going on in the world in our times, what is God expecting from each one of us? He certainly expects us to. Are we ready, willing, and able to do his bidding or will we keep silent? Much aggression is coming at those who chose to not keep silent like getting fired from their jobs, being shunned by family and friends and even getting physically attacked. What is God requiring of us? What he has always required, “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

Matthew 16:25 says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Life was given to us for a purpose higher and bigger than ourselves. John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Our times are requiring much boldness to pierce the darkness of lies and corruption with truth in obedience to God to be salt and light in our generation (Matthew 5:13-16).

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