| 2:06 MIN READ |
Someone once said, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” Perhaps the adage can more accurately be stated, “What doesn’t kill you, CAN make you stronger!” The possibility is there, but the choice is ours. Problems, pain, and limitations provide us with potential character-building fertilizer if we respond the right way to them.
There’s a story in the Old Testament that teaches this. It’s the story of Esther and Mordecai. The story happens sometime between 486–465 B.C. in the ancient Persian empire. The Persian king, Xerxes, was perhaps the most powerful ruler in the world. In the 3rd year of his reign (483–482 B.C.) Xerxes called his key leaders together and threw a 180-days party for them. During the party the king’s relationship with his queen, Vashti, took a turn for the worse and king Xerxes banished her from his kingdom.
It’s with this background that Esther, a Jewish young lady also known as Hadassah, and her cousin Mordecai enter the picture. Esther 2:5-7 (NLT) “At that time there was a Jewish man in the fortress of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair. He was from the tribe of Benjamin … His family had been among those who … had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. This man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin, Hadassah, who was also called Esther. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter.”
When Mordecai and Esther appear on the scene of history, they appear as people with limitations and problems. They were Jews living in Persia. Esther was an orphan. Mordecai’s family had been uprooted from their homeland by circumstances beyond their control. They experienced the pain of being exiled in a foreign land. Mordecai had taken on the responsibility as a young adult of providing, caring and raising his orphaned cousin.
Mordecai and Esther turned their limitations and pain into great potential and were used by God to change history. What about you? What are you doing with your limitations and pain? Are you grumbling or growing?
Pastor Dale
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