When All Eyes Look To You by Bill Denton

“...And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

    One of my favorite people in the Old Testament is Esther. Few people at any time in history have found themselves in such a critical position. As someone once said, she was queen because she was the winner of a Persian beauty contest. That’s not far from the truth. However she came to the position, events occurred that left her as the only hope of the Jewish people. Haman convinced King Ahasuerus to sign a decree allowing the slaughter of the Jews. Esther, herself a Jew, was the only hope of a doomed people. By risking her own life, she convinced the King to allow the Jews to defend themselves. In the end, Haman was condemned and the Jews were spared, all because one woman accepted a responsibility she might have declined.

Are you ready for such a time as this?

    It may never be that you are in quite the same position as Esther. But, it is likely that at some point, all the eyes will turn and look to you. Those eyes may belong to the members of your family, or they may belong to your friends, the people you work with, your neighbors or community, or even your church.

    Don’t assume it won’t happen to you. The Persian beauty queen, Esther, probably never dreamed of being such a pivotal person in her people’s history. In fact, you might not even recognize the critical events as being so important.

    Many others stand as similar examples: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Nehemiah, the apostle Paul. Our mistake is that we assume that God will never call upon us in the same way. Don’t make such a mistake. If you looked at Joseph at just about any point in the first half of his life, you would see little more than a poor, destitute, imprisoned slave. Who would have thought he would rise to such importance? He did so, because he was open and available to God. Perhaps that’s the point of all this. God uses a strange array of folks to do his will, but one thing all held in common is that they were available. Are you ready for such a time as this?

HEARTLIGHT^® Magazine is a ministry of loving Christians and the Westover Hills church of Christ.
Edited by Phil Ware and Paul Lee.
Copyright © 1996-98, Heartlight, Inc., 8332 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX 78759.
Copyright (c) 1998, Bill Denton. Used by permission.
HEARTLIGHT and the flared heart design are service marks of Heartlight, Inc.