Sacrifice for God’s Will

When Mordecai sent Esther a copy of the king’s decree to annihilate the Jews and urged Esther to intervene with the king, she was initially fearful and reluctant. But Mordecai warned her that her own life and that of her family were in danger unless she acted and that if she did not act, deliverance would come from another place (a veiled reference to God). He encouraged Esther to believe that God had providentially brought her to the court as His instrument to thwart the evil plot (v. 14).

In spite of her natural fear, Esther decided to approach the king. The attitude displayed in her statement, “if I perish, I perish!” is not one of despair but of submission to the will of God.

Self-denial is not an easy road even for the saints of God, who are subject to concern for self-preservation just as other mortals. The reminder that Esther’s presence in the court was not accidental but of divine arrangement was the catalyst for her act of self-denial.

Taken from The Devotional Daily Bible