Courage comes from Prayer

Esther 4:11-16
New King James Version (NKJV)
11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.” 12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.

13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

Esther, and orphan who had been crowned queen, has been called to a task that could cost her her life. Her cousin Mordecai has just disclosed the evil plot to annihilate all of the Jews from the Mede-Persian Empire and asked her to plead their case before the king. Esther had some real fears to contend with. She had become queen because the first queen, Vashti, had refused to obey the king, she knew first-hand the cost of disobedience. She had hidden her Jewish heritage from everyone when she had been taken as a candidate for queen and now she had not been called into the king's presence for 30 days and it would violate the law to go before the king without being called. The task itself seemed fruitless as Persian law stated that an edict from the king could not be overturned even by the king himself.
The fears were real, the task seemed hopeless yet her cousin reminded her that she may have been called "for such a time as this." Esther asks for fasting from everyone. Fasting in the Jewish culture was a time of intimate prayer and fellowship with God. Esther needed courage to do what God had called her to do, so she prayed. Not only did she pray but she enlisted an entire people group of believers to prayer with her and for her and then she resolved that God's will be done in her life. She would do what she was called to do no matter the cost.

Today what has called called you to do. Perhaps, like Esther, you have been called to such a time as this! You may feel insignificant, invisible, unworthy or ill-equipped. Drop to your knees and pray and enlist prayer warriors to pray for you and with you! Then, like Esther, confidently do what God has called you to do. He will equip you and go with you!

Father, Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Thank You for the power we have in prayer. Thank You for friends and family that You have given us who will pray with us and for us! Thank You for going with us into every situation and equipping us for the tasks You have created us for! Father I pray that You would be with me and each one that feels they are not ready, worthy, equipped or fearful of what might come from obedience to You. Give us Your courage and strength to be obedient and do all that You have created us to do. Thank You for Prayer! In Jesus powerful name, amen!