Passage Read: Esther 3-6
Meditation Verse: 4:16
Thought
Esther was willing to risk her life on the basis of her cousin's remarks. Perhaps she had come to royalty for such a time as this. Perhaps her family would be destroyed while all the rest of the Jews were delivered. But perhaps none of that would happen! Perhaps she would have no favor with the king and she would perish, because God had a completely different idea to save His people. But because Mordecai said so, she would do it, she would risk her life. And she said her famous words, "If I perish, I perish." If there was a chance she was there to save her people, she'd risk her life. But if not, she was willing to die. She did not love her life so much as to shrink from death.
Application
Jesus calls us all to likewise risk our lives for the sake of others, for family, for neighbors, for our own people and for strangers. It may entail physical death. It does entail giving up earthly ambitions. We could stay put and enjoy all the benefits of owning land and houses and fields and cars and everything else. Or we could give all that up and find ways to tell others about Jesus and warn them to repent. We could leave all that to go to strange places and tell others about Jesus and their need to repent for salvation. I need to have Esther's willingness to lose everything, if there's even a fraction of a chance that my stepping up could help save others.