Max Lucado Daily: ESTHER - June 15, 2022 “And who knows, you may have been chosen queen for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14 NCV).
A wonderful illustration of boldness in prayer is in the story of Esther. Though her language and culture are an atlas apart from ours, she can tell you about the power of prayer to a king. Her request was to her husband, the king. Her prayer was for the delivery of her people. And because she entered the throne room, because she opened her heart to the king, he changed his plans and millions of people were saved.
Like Esther, we have been given a place in the palace. Like Esther, we have royal robes; we are dressed in righteousness. Like Esther, we have the privilege of making our request. And when we pray for God’s kingdom to come, it comes!
1 Samuel 7 And they did. The men of Kiriath Jearim came and got the Chest of God and delivered it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. They ordained his son, Eleazar, to take responsibility for the Chest of God.
2 From the time that the Chest came to rest in Kiriath Jearim, a long time passed—twenty years it was—and throughout Israel there was a widespread, fearful movement toward God.
3 Then Samuel addressed the house of Israel: “If you are truly serious about coming back to God, clean house. Get rid of the foreign gods and fertility goddesses, ground yourselves firmly in God, worship him and him alone, and he’ll save you from Philistine oppression.”
4 They did it. They got rid of the gods and goddesses, the images of Baal and Ashtoreth, and gave their exclusive attention and service to God.
5 Next Samuel said, “Get everybody together at Mizpah and I’ll pray for you.”
6 So everyone assembled at Mizpah. They drew water from the wells and poured it out before God in a ritual of cleansing. They fasted all day and prayed, “We have sinned against God.”
So Samuel prepared the Israelites for holy war there at Mizpah.
The Place Where God Helped Us
7 When the Philistines heard that Israel was meeting at Mizpah, the Philistine leaders went on the offensive. Israel got the report and became frightened—Philistines on the move again!
8 They pleaded with Samuel, “Pray with all your might! And don’t let up! Pray to God, our God, that he’ll save us from the boot of the Philistines.”
9 Samuel took a young lamb not yet weaned and offered it whole as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God. He prayed fervently to God, interceding for Israel. And God answered.
10-12 While Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then God thundered, a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked—mass confusion!—and scattered before Israel. Israel poured out of Mizpah and gave chase, killing Philistines right and left, to a point just beyond Beth Car. Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it “Ebenezer” (Rock of Help), saying, “This marks the place where God helped us.”
13-14 The Philistines learned their lesson and stayed home—no more border crossings. God was hard on the Philistines all through Samuel’s lifetime. All the cities from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored. Israel also freed the surrounding countryside from Philistine control. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
15-17 Samuel gave solid leadership to Israel his entire life. Every year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah. He gave leadership to Israel in each of these places. But always he would return to Ramah, where he lived, and preside from there. That is where he built an altar to God.
Our Daily Bread Today's Scripture:
Luke 16:1–12
The Story of the Crooked Manager
1–2 16 Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’
3–4 “The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg.… Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do … then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’
5 “Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’
“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’
7 “To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’
“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’
“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’
8–9 “Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
God Sees Behind Appearances
10–13 Jesus went on to make these comments:
If you’re honest in small things,
you’ll be honest in big things;
If you’re a crook in small things,
you’ll be a crook in big things.
If you’re not honest in small jobs,
who will put you in charge of the store?
Insight
As He crafted His parables, Jesus engaged with real-world situations. This is one reason why His stories often centered on money. His audience plainly understood the necessity of possessing at least some of this world’s resources. The lesson here isn’t that we’re to be dishonest or to push the bounds of ethical behavior as this manager did. Rather, Jesus implied that we’re to be “trustworthy in handling worldly wealth” (v. 11). His point is to be generous in a God-honoring way, which begins with our reliability in little things.
By: Tim
Gustafson Investing in Others
Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves.
Luke 16:9
When a corporation offered one thousand frequent-flier miles for every ten purchases of one of their foods, one man realized their cheapest product was individual cups of chocolate pudding. He bought more than twelve thousand. For $3,000, he received gold status and a lifetime supply of air miles for himself and his family. He also donated the pudding to charity, which netted him an $800 tax write-off. Genius!
Jesus told a controversial parable about a cunning manager who, as he was being fired, reduced what debtors owed his master. The man knew he could rely on their help later for the favor he was doing them now. Jesus wasn’t praising the manager’s unethical business practice, but He knew we could learn from his ingenuity. Jesus said we should shrewdly “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). As “the pudding guy” turned twenty-five cent desserts into flights, so we may use our “worldly wealth” to gain “true riches” (v. 11).
What are these riches? Jesus said, “Give to the poor” and you will “provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys” (12:33). Our investment doesn’t earn our salvation, but it does affirm it, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v. 34).
By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
How have you recently helped meet someone’s physical needs? Why is your charity an investment?
Loving God, help me to invest in the poor, for Jesus’ sake and Yours.
My Utmost for His Highest
Get Moving! (2)
By Oswald Chambers Also…add to your faith… —2 Peter 1:5 In the matter of drudgery. Peter said in this passage that we have become “partakers of the divine nature” and that we should now be “giving all diligence,” concentrating on forming godly habits (2 Peter 1:4-5). We are to “add” to our lives all that character means. No one is born either naturally or supernaturally with character; it must be developed. Nor are we born with habits— we have to form godly habits on the basis of the new life God has placed within us. We are not meant to be seen as God’s perfect, bright-shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace. Drudgery is the test of genuine character. The greatest hindrance in our spiritual life is that we will only look for big things to do. Yet, “Jesus…took a towel and…began to wash the disciples’ feet…” (John 13:3-5).
We all have those times when there are no flashes of light and no apparent thrill to life, where we experience nothing but the daily routine with its common everyday tasks. The routine of life is actually God’s way of saving us between our times of great inspiration which come from Him. Don’t always expect God to give you His thrilling moments, but learn to live in those common times of the drudgery of life by the power of God.
It is difficult for us to do the “adding” that Peter mentioned here. We say we do not expect God to take us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we do! I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has all of the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I will do my duty, not for duty’s sake but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is mine through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ. WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When we no longer seek God for His blessings, we have time to seek Him for Himself. The Moral Foundations of Life, 728 L
Bible in a Year: Nehemiah 1-3; Acts 2:1-21
A Word With You by Ron Hutchcraft
YOUR MISSION HAS A NAME - #9243
There's no way newscasters could tell her story without somehow using the word "miracle." And that was easy to understand. See, Baby Lily had been trapped in a partly submerged car in Utah's Spanish Fork River. She was 18 months old. She was upside down in her car seat for 14 hours, with the cold water of the river running through that car.
Sadly, Lily's mom, who had been driving, did not survive that accident. And no one knew there was a car in the river until a fisherman spotted it the next day. Thank God, the rescuers he called got there in time. Just in time. Initially, there were no signs of life. But after triage CPR and the efforts of an emergency room staff, Lily started to respond. Now, it's a bittersweet situation. Mom didn't make it. But only days later, Lily was with her dad, singing her nursery rhymes again.
The first responders couldn't stop talking about what they called "the voice." The voice they heard calling 'Help me!' from the car in the river. It couldn't have been Lily's mom. It wasn't Lily. It was an adult voice. Reporters call it "divine intervention." I call it God.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Mission Has a Name."
It's something God's been doing for a long time; calling someone He's rescued from spiritual death to rescue someone else. Someone that Jesus died for, and someone who doesn't know or doesn't understand how deeply Jesus loves them. So much that in the Bible's words, "He gave Himself for our sins to rescue us" (Galatians 1:4).
Now as one of His rescued, I am called by God; a voice in my heart calling me to the person who is living and dying ultimately without Christ. I was rescued to rescue. Listen to our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 24:11, "rescue those who are being led away to death. Hold back those who are staggering toward slaughter." Or what about Jude 23, "snatch others from the fire..." like someone rescued you. "Snatch others from the fire and save them."
But He won't leave those rescue calls general. No, they're specific. For each of us who belong to Jesus, God wants to put a name in those verses; the name of someone we know. "Save Brian." "Rescue Annie, who's being led away to death."
The voice from heaven has cried "help" to me on behalf of family members He wanted me to help rescue, on behalf of neighbors, people I've worked with in the community. Because God wants each of us who know Him to carry a piece of His heart in our heart; a burden with a name. Someone we care enough about that we want them in heaven with us forever. Someone we pray for by name every day.
Someone for whom we regularly pray the 3-open prayer based on Colossians 4:3 and 4, "Lord, open a door (a natural opportunity) for me to talk to them about a relationship with You." Then, "Lord, open their heart," Then, "Lord, open my mouth!" Got it? "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." Pray that on a daily basis and watch the amazing opportunities God will open up.
Even if going in for the rescue is hard. Those rescuers who followed the voice to baby Lily had to use all their strength to lift the car she was in. Several were treated for hypothermia. Rescue isn't cheap. Not for Jesus. Not for us.
But a life depends on me responding to the call to jump in. Because I've got to go with a fear greater than what might happen to me if I go in for the rescue. You know what the greater fear is? What might happen to them if I don't.