 Thank you! It may be a small thing to some but it means a lot to me. If you are faithful over a few things HE will make you ruler over many. @drsamariamcolbert
#youtube  Esther 4:14 Living Bible14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, God will deliver the Jews from some other source, but you and your relatives will die; what’s more, who can say but that God has brought you into the palace for just such a time as this?”
Heroes don’t always wear capes. In fact, heroes are unlikely people who don’t sign up to be a part of someone else’s story. We live in a world where everyone wants to be seen, known, and heard. In some ways, we are searching for significance. Some think if they can get into the right connections, the right social group, and be seen next to a celebrity, then they are guaranteed the road to success. Unfortunately, we live in a world of clout chasers. I talked about how people want to manipulate themselves into positions with great men or women of God in my last book, Haman’s Plot. True heroes don’t want to be seen or known; they find themselves in circumstances that they never anticipated, having to make choices that they never thought they’d have to make in an instant. True heroes are born in unlikely circumstances. What appears to them to be a mere coincidence is really God’s divine order. Esther was such a hero. She didn’t go seeking fame, fortune, or a rich husband. Esther was simply being obedient to her cousin Mordecai. Esther represents a woman who has been abandoned, orphaned, but chosen. The wonderful thing I love about God is that He doesn’t choose like man. He doesn’t choose the one everyone is looking at. He chooses the abandoned, the broken, the one whose life story is not about being the best but being the least. The one who is counted out by man but chosen by God. I love the story of Esther because she is me. I can relate to her, and I am sure you picked up this book because her story relates to you as well. I have been shunned and abandoned by people who said they loved me. I have been overlooked and underestimated all my life. I was the quiet girl that everyone rejected, and no one saw. I was the one who felt unloved. But God saw me. Over a year ago, the sadness of my own abandonment got to me. With tears in my eyes, I said to God, “I feel like I have been rejected by people all my life.” I was always too quiet, too reserved, not enough of something, or too much of something. I was given counsel that said, “Maybe you should talk more or not be so quiet.” I never understood what’s so wrong with being quiet. Why do I need to talk more? More importantly, why is that your problem when it is not mine? I was and still am the girl who loved to read books and study. I am the classic nerd, glasses and all. Yet all my life, I was made to feel by other people that something was wrong. When you are so quiet, people don’t see you; they see right through you. Nevertheless, like Esther, I am not forsaken or forgotten by God. God has created us Esther’s in secret places to rule kingdoms. In my alone time, God responded to my pain. He said, “Samaria I have not rejected you; I have chosen you. Because I have chosen you, I have concealed you.” When you are concealed, you are hidden, and you won’t be revealed until God’s appointed time for your unveiling. Your time of obscurity is a time of preparation and process. Don’t despise your hidden season. This book is to encourage all the Esther’s out there. Don’t give up. Don’t let the pain of being overlooked cause you to question God’s sovereignty.  Let’s play a game? The game is called have you ever? I am going to give you a scenario and you must respond with a yes or no. Okay, are you ready? Good. Have you ever been sitting in a church, and heard a man or woman of God begin to prophesy? They tell you to jump now, shout down, sow your seed now and what you have been dreaming, wanting, and wishing is going to come to pass within days, you do what you were told and it doesn’t come to pass. Have you ever been discouraged because you are not at the place where you thought you’d be? Maybe you thought your ministry would be flourishing by now? Maybe you thought you’d be a success by now? Maybe you waited much longer than expected, so much longer that you had to go back and say to God, “Did you really mean what you said?” Have you ever cried yourself to sleep because you were so disappointed and discouraged, you felt like giving up? Have you ever felt like quitting but you thought, “I come too far, I can’t turn around and I can’t stay stuck, I might as well keep moving forward.” Have you ever been wearied in well doing? Meaning your heart got tired from deep within because you got worn-out of doing the right things and getting the wrong results or no results at all? Have you ever said when God when? Has it ever felt like God was blessing everyone around you except you? Have you ever celebrated a friend’s new found success, but inside your heart was stinging and your eyes full of tears because he or she got so easily what you have been praying and working hard for and you still don’t have it? Be honest, God knows the truth anyway. Have you ever felt as if God had betrayed you? Be honest, have you ever felt like the scriptures didn’t work for you in particular? I could go on, but if you have said yes to anyone of these questions, this book is for you. As a warning, we are going to put aside all of our religious rhetoric. We are going, to be honest, truthfully honest. We are going to speak truth to the lies of the enemy. We are also going, to be honest in a way that you may not be able, to be honest in church. The intent is to break the spirit of discouragement off of your life. Believe it or not, if you have ever had feelings and thoughts related to the questions, you are right in line with where you should be. As long as you determine to not give up. This book will cause you to keep on the road ahead of you and not allow the voice of the enemy to become a stronghold. Bishop Don Mears told us a story years ago that I will never forget. He said a soldier who has just started going to war is not tired or wearied. He said it is after you have been in the fight a long time that you become wearied and tired. You may still be in the fight but you are tired, wounded and wearied. Let’s go through the journey of healing together. |
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