It Can Kill You Or Build You!

God used my Aunt Mary who spoke the phrase for the blog as she shared to me about the goodness of God. We can become a victim or a victor. We can allow our circumstances to stress us or to stretch us higher in our faith and in God.

Esther had a choice to make. An unjust law was sent out to kill the Jews. The law was influenced by Haman after Mordecai would not bow down to Haman. King Xerxes signed it. In Esther Chapter 4 Mordecai sent a message to Esther: ¹³  “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. ¹⁴ If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”¹⁵ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” ¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

In Esther Chapter 5 Esther got dressed in her royal apparel on the third day of fasting and approached the King unannounced and requested a banquet for the king and Haman. In Esther 7 Esther informed the king about the plot Haman planned against her and her people, the Jews. The trap Haman had for the Jews backfired and he was killed instead from the pole. Esther people were freed.

2 Kings 7:3-7 NLT:³ Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. ⁴ “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”⁵ So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! ⁶ For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” they cried to one another. ⁷ So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.

Testimony: A co-worker made false statements about me to a supervisor. I vented to my dad about it. My dad told me “pray for those that say all manner of evil against you.” I began to pray for her. She came to me and apologized for not being truthful. I forgave her and witnessed to her. She ended up getting saved and went to my church along with her husband and children.

Prayer: Thank you God for sending me an example, Jesus. He went through the pain and cross for me. Now I can face any challenge through trusting in Jesus. God always causes me to triumph through Him. I use my challenges I face to activate my faith and take me higher in God. In Jesus name! Amen!