for such a time as this

For Such A Time As This: A Time For All

Posted on July 31, 2020August 15, 2020 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

It’s one of my favorite quotes in the Bible. Esther, a common woman, finds herself in extraordinary circumstances. She can save her people from a death sentence, but she must risk her life in order to succeed. As she struggles with doubt, her cousin Mordecai tells her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Today, all of us face extremely different, extraordinary circumstances. We find ourselves facing peril on many fronts, from trying to stay healthy to dealing with political, social and economic issues. For all intents and purposes, it seems like the world at large is balanced on a narrow thread, teetering on the brink of success or failure.

To God, each of us matters. Jesus talks about the shepherd who goes looking everywhere for the one sheep that is missing. The father of the prodigal rejoices over his son’s return. Jesus points to the birds and asks us to consider how much more God will take care of us when He provides so well for these feathered wonders. Christ died on the cross to ensure each of us has the opportunity to be saved.

What if God has put you in this time and place for such a time as this? As Christians, showing the world the kind of difference following Jesus makes in our lives is so important. His kindness, compassion and empathy provide the love and understanding the world needs to find healing, now more than ever. For such a time as this, the world needs people who can absorb the impact of uncertainty and change and walk in the faith that God is in control.

As Christians, we know that ultimately God’s Will prevails. If we live each day walking with God, strong in the knowledge of His sovereignty, providing vibes of His peace with our patient interactions with people we meet, have we not fulfilled the promise of doing what God needs us to do in such a time as this? No, we can’t change the whole world with the actions we can control on a daily basis, but we can make a difference one person at a time. If enough of us embrace our faith and walk this planet as Jesus would do, we will see a changed world, a world better than what it has ever been before.

Kindness can be tricky. We want to believe that all kind people are going to heaven. But kindness that does not root itself in faith is fleeting, likely to crumble at the first signs of challenge. When this current crisis passes, much of the good deeds being done will shrivel away. But kind acts rooted in faith breed more kind acts. We love and are kind every day when we walk with Christ, whether the world is falling apart around us or not. One person at a time, one day at a time, we make a difference by acting on God’s Word.

Small acts can make a large difference. In this masked-up reality, we can’t see a simple smile, but we can meet people in the eye. And the looks our eyes project can be full of joy or empathy. We can respond with polite words when we are confronted with rudeness. We can understand that no one is operating at full capacity at the moment. We can offer people the benefit of the doubt.

What is your spiritual gift? How are you using it during this crazy time? I believe my spiritual gift involves writing. When I feel that God has given me something worthy to say, I write a blog post about it to share that idea. There are other ways I can use my writing as well, like sending cards to people who are struggling or alone.

How are you applying your spiritual gifts during such a time as this? Instead of worrying about the speck in your neighbor’s eye, are you working on the log in your own? Are you good at talking to people about faith and hope, especially when they are caught up in despair? Are you praising God for His mercy and wonder and grace? Are you praying for and with others? Are you prepared to be mocked for your beliefs, sure in the knowledge of the promise of what is to come?

Conservative views are under attack, prompting us to respond with anger or bloated righteousness instead of turning the other cheek. The late Ravi Zacharias perfected the model of responding like Jesus to such attacks. Never giving up what he knew to be the truth, he would calmly ask questions of his attackers, working to understand their point of view at the same time he tried to help them see the issue from his point of view. Because he applied this Socratic method in love, regardless of the hate being directed to him, he often showed how love and patience will always reveal God’s truth better than hatred and anger.

What if we as Christians in such a time as this applied the methods of love and patience and turning the other cheek each day instead of attacking back? What if in such a time as this, God needs us to be like Jesus more than ever? What if He put you in this time and place because He knows you can walk by faith and find the strength to see everyone through a lens of love, even as you cling to the conservative truths that help you continuously walk with God?

Pray to be like Jesus. Know His Word. Let it begin your day and guide it. Return to Him every time you feel yourself slipping into fear or anger or despair. When we model the perfect peace of knowing God, we will make others want what we have. At such a time as this, helping others find the gift of knowing a loving God seems like the most important thing of all.

What is your next step? Why did God put you here, in this time and place? Anyone can make a difference, for the good or the bad. Choose the good. Choose Jesus.

In Christ,
Ramona

Christian Living, Faith

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

For such a time as this

I love the story of Esther and Mordecai. Every time I read it, I learn something new that I can apply to my life. This week, the lesson that stood out most for me was Mordecai’s argument with his niece, then the queen, as he convinced her to risk her life for the sake of the greater good.

Esther’s life was never easy. She was an orphaned Jewish girl, living far from her people’s homeland, along with all the other exiles. Her uncle, Mordecai, takes her in to raise her. She grows up learning the lessons about boundaries and injustice that plague all defeated nationalities.

Imagine her surprise when she is asked to come to the palace to compete for the position of queen! Even this “blessing” is not as wonderful as it seems. Because her people are foreigners in the land of their conquerors, she doesn’t tell anyone who doesn’t already know that she is a Jew. Instead of having free access to the outside world and childhood friends around her, Esther must get used to a household staff led by eunuchs as she is shielded during her preparation for the big day, her one and only chance to make a good impression on King Xerxes.

Sure, Esther gets special beauty treatments, has servants, and eats a special diet while she’s in the palace. But, she’s taken from the only home she has ever known, objectified for almost an entire year without even meeting the king, and must perpetually worry about what will happen whether or not the king chooses her. After all, the queen Esther might be replacing was cut off by the king just because she didn’t feel like going to dance in front of a group of drunk royalty at the snap of the king’s inebriated fingers.

At the point in Esther’s story when Mordecai uses his lesson-giving argument, she is finally queen, but the Jewish people are in even more serious trouble than the usual. The Persian king has allowed one of his minions to declare a day for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai wants his niece to go to the king unannounced and beg for a reprieve from the death sentence.

Esther hesitates. Nobody in the palace knows that she is even a Jew. She hasn’t been called to the king in a month as it is, so could the king even be interested in seeing her? And, here’s the kicker: if she walks into the room where the king is unbidden and he doesn’t reach out his scepter to her, Esther faces an immediate penalty of death.

My absolute favorite lesson in this story is Mordecai’s argument to Esther that she should take the chance for her people because how does she not know that God made her queen for “such a time as this.” But, this week when I was reading the story again, another aspect of Mordecai’s argument with Esther at this critical moment stood out for me.

Mordecai assures Esther that God will save the Jews one way or another, with or without her. Didn’t Esther want to be a part of God’s plan? He tells her:

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Mordecai’s unwavering assurance that God’s will always will be done reminds me of all the times I don’t give God enough credit as I go through each day. Because I know that bad things happen in a fallen world, I sometimes get into the mindset of forgetting that God still has His hand on everything, often by helping to create something good out of the bad that is happening all around us.

How inspiring is it to understand that God will love, will provide whether we are an instrument of that provision or not? It gives us not only encouragement but actual courage to know that God is not limited by our human capacity or even the necessary parameters of a fallen world. I need that courage, especially when living my faith means doing things that are way outside my comfort zone, like interacting in large groups or going to places I’m unfamiliar with in order to be of service to someone.

What happens next in Esther’s story is also an important reminder. Before going before the king and risking her life, Esther fasts for three days and asks that the rest of her people join her in the fast. She wants to be sure that she is honoring God, following His will, and walking in assurance that He is with her. We must be sure we are walking in God’s will if we want to be able to lean into the assurance of His help in our endeavors.

We Christians long to do the will of God always and in all ways. Remembering that He accomplishes His will whether we serve as an instrument of His design or not is sometimes vital to stepping forward in faith. No one who loves God wants to fail Him. Esther’s faith in God saves not only the Jews, but also teaches us that walking in faith helps us to fulfill the times like this that God places us on this earth for in the first place.

Faith

For Such A Time As This: Lessons From The Queen

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Ramona Levacy Billingslea

Hadassah, an orphan, loves her cousin Mordecai, who has raised her. He has never steered her wrong, so when Cousin Mordecai tells Hadassah to present herself as a candidate for the next queen to King Xerxes, Hadassah goes along with it. She even goes along with it when Cousin Mordecai tells her not to let anyone know she is a Jew.

So, as Esther, Hadassah presents herself at the palace, knowing that at worst she will spend the rest of her life as a slave in the king’s harem and at best, she will be named queen.

She may not relish being named the queen. The woman she will be replacing was put aside when she refused to present herself before the king and his nobles and military officials, even though they had all been partying for seven days, drinking freely because the king had put no limit to the amount of liquor he was offering to those attending.

One can only imagine that queen’s position. Vashti has been hosting 180-days’ worth of pomp and circumstance. In the last seven days, while the king is eating and drinking to excess, she has been hosting her own banquet for the women.

King Xerxes expects Vashti to come when he snaps and to look as beautiful as possible when she shows up. Vashti is one of the original trophy wives. So, when she doesn’t jump at the chance to parade in front of a very large banquet full of very, very drunk men, King Xerxes summons a band of “wise men” to determine the action he should take.

In order to ensure that no other women get any ideas of independence from Vashti’s actions, the men decide that the queen should be banished. Xerxes takes this action with a rapidity that is matched only by the leisure he takes in deciding he misses having a beautiful woman around. That’s when the advisors determine to find the king a new queen.

Esther enters the palace for twelve months’ worth of beauty treatments in preparation of her presentation to the king. It sounds like pampering, but the pressure is on. She has to be pleasing to the eunuchs in charge of her, to the slaves attending her, all in practice for being brought before the king. If she is not chosen, Esther will still spend the rest of her life in the palace, but as a mere slave. Either way, the one place Esther will never live again is among her own people.

Perhaps, she was surprised to be the woman King Xerxes chose. Imagine her awe as a royal crown was placed upon her head, a banquet thrown in her honor. And still she stayed silent about her heritage because Cousin Mordecai told her to. When Mordecai uncovers a plot to kill Xerxes, Queen Esther is able to save the king, proudly giving her cousin the credit.

So, when Mordecai urges Esther to go before the king to plead the Jewish cause, perhaps Esther wonders if he has lost his marbles. After all, she hasn’t told Xerxes she’s a Jew. The king hasn’t even felt the need to see her for a month. Maybe his desire for her has waned. He has a full harem of women, after all. And, if she walks in uninvited without the king acknowledging her, she can be hung!

Cousin Mordecai’s response to Esther’s hesitance is a classic source of comfort for all who face tough decisions. “What if you were made queen,” Mordecai asks, “for such a time as this?”

Esther is no dummy. She knows the risk she is about to take, and she knows the honor God commands. She asks Mordecai and all her people to fast and pray for her for three days before she undertakes this dangerous mission. She and her servants do the same.

Esther enters the king’s presence, and he is pleased by her. She knows how much the king enjoys a good feast and throws a banquet for the king and her cousin’s greatest enemy, Haman. When the king is indeed pleased and asks what Esther would like in return, she doesn’t press her luck, but merely asks for the king to come again the next day for another banquet. Only if she pleases the king, she assures him, will she even make a request.

Who can resist a beautiful woman who is also humble? Not King Xerxes, who hurries to fulfill Esther’s request the next day to save her people, allowing them to take vengeance on their enemies. She underscores the humility of her request by assuring Xerxes that she would not even bother him with the fate of the Jews if they had been destined to become slaves. That fate would not have been important enough for King Xerxes’ consideration, Esther reasons.

In the end, it seems Esther was indeed made queen for such a time as this. Thinking about Esther’s fate somehow makes facing our own challenges just a little bit easier. Perhaps rough times now are giving us the skills we need for even more difficult times in the future. Maybe a challenging life change at this moment will turn out to be a tenfold blessing further along in our lives. Maybe we are persecuted for what we believe in in order to inspire others to faith.

Besides teaching us to look for God’s lessons in the events of our lives, Esther teaches us the importance of humility in our relationship with God. If we approach each day knowing the gratitude we should feel for not getting what we deserve (which is death), but instead getting the free gift of grace, imagine how powerful God will make our days.

With God, no one who enters into His throne room need fear rejection. He extends His golden scepter to all comers.

And that is the greatest lesson of all.