Commitment Sunday

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?”

- Esther 4:14 (NKJV)

In the book of Esther, we see God use a beauty pageant queen to deliver God’s people.  A man named Haman was plotting to annihilate the children of God and Israel. But Esther had been made the queen. On the verge of destruction, Esther calls the people to prayer and fasting. We see in this story that God uses Esther despite the risk to her life. If she were to go before the king without being summoned, it could result in her losing her life. Esther, in faith, stepped out and went before the king. As the story goes, the king honored Esther, spared her life, and ultimately listened to her so that the nation of Israel was spared.

We see in this story that God still uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Esther was poor, a minority in a foreign culture, and God chose to elevate her through a beauty pageant, to position her to help his people. God positioned many others as well: David, Joseph, the Apostle Paul. In our lives, we can also ask God to give us a “such a time as this” moment, an opportunity, a platform, a purpose, and destiny. 

“Such a time as this” moments are often encountered by living a life of faith, continually ready for them. To remember how to live and walk in faith, an acronym is P.L.O.W. 

1. Pray. We as a church have been asked to pray. 

2. Listen. We as a church have been asked to listen. 

3. Obey. We are to obey what we’ve heard, what God has said when we’ve prayed. 

4. Wow. We see wow moments throughout Scripture, as God uses people. We can also see incredible wow moments in our own lives, as we live in faith. 

Just like Esther, when God calls us to something, it requires a faith that is willing to obey, even when it doesn't make sense. When we Pray, Listen, and Obey, we will have many Wow moments, where we recognize that God made us, for such a time as this.