Thursday, July 3, 2008

Miraculously Mundane


I love the book of Esther and her story. It is my favorite story of God's sovereignty. I love how He brings these things into my life at just the right time. For such a time as this.


Esther 2
1AFTER THESE things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he [earnestly] remembered Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her.
2Then the king's servants who ministered to him said, Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.
3And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the capital in Shushan, to the harem under the custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their things for purification be given them.
4And let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This pleased the king, and he did so.
5There was a certain Jew in the capital in Shushan whose name was Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,
6Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives taken away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile.
7He had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was beautiful and lovely, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.


God's plans are not stopped when the events of this world are worldly or secular. God is at work. He's moving. He's touching lives. He's shaping kingdoms. He's never surprised by what humanity may do. Just because actions or motives happen to be wrong or unfair, it doesn't mean He's not present. Those involved may not be glorifying Him, but never doubt it, He's present. He's at work.

God's purposes are not frustrated by moral or marital failures. I know this because He is a God who applies grace to the long view of life. Wrong grieves Him, and serious consequences follow, but no amount of wrong frustrates His sovereign purposes! He is a God of great grace. Oh, I am so grateful because I am an undeserving recipient.

Third, God's people are not excluded from high places because of handicap or hardship. Esther was a Jew exiled in a foreign land. She was an orphan. She was light-years removed from Persian nobility. Yet none of that kept God from exalting her to the position in which He wanted her. Queen.

God's hand is not so short that it cannot save, nor is His ear so full that He cannot hear. Whether you or I see Him or not, He is at work in our lives this very moment. God specializes in turning the mundane into the meaningful. God not only moves in unusual ways, He also moves on uneventful days. He is just as involved in the mundane as He is in the miraculous.

He is a sovereign God at work amid the vast scenes of state and empires in our world. And I, even in the midst of my usual days, must remain pure and committed to the things of God and His work in my life, even as I remain sensitive to His hand moving in wrong, unfair, even evil places. Only then can there be hope in this broken world that so desperately needs Him.

Lord, You are working all around me today to accomplish your perfect purpose for my life.

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