Year of the Bible: Part Six of Twelve Sample

Be The Right Person

“When I grow up, I’m going to marry a prince,” the little girls may say.
“When I grow up, I will be a firefighter,” the young boys may say.

I wonder what dreams filled the heart of a young orphan named Esther while being raised by her Uncle Mordecai in a foreign country during the Babylonian captivity. Marrying a young Jewish boy or raising the perfect family, maybe? Could she even bear to dream big dreams as a captive Jew in this wicked land where nothing was certain?

Whatever her dreams or doubts, we can be certain nothing turned out as she thought. If ever there was an illustration of the saying “Your past does not determine your future,” it was Esther, who was unexpectedly plucked from her uncle’s home and made queen of her foreign king. The process may have been a dream or a nightmare—to be thrown into a group home of girls who would have to take turns sleeping with the king in a competition to see who his next queen would be.

Esther’s character, respect, honor, and humility opened doors for her: the door to being queen and the door to the king’s heart when she needed a huge favor. Perhaps a lesson from this story is that we shouldn’t set goals for our future circumstances so much as we should set goals for our character! Do you want to find the right job, or do you want to be the right person for whom God can open all kinds of jobs? For our single adults, “Getting married” is not a good goal (sorry); becoming a person of great character, however, is a good goal – doing that will open doors of relationships with the best kind of people.

Question: Are there dreams in your heart about future circumstances that have become more important to you than growing into a Christ-like person? At your birthday party twenty years from now, what would you want people in your family, work, school, or neighborhood to say about the kind of person you are?

Prayer: Spend a few moments in prayer surrendering any idolatrous dreams to Jesus Christ, and express to the Lord how you would like to see your character developed. Believing that He is good and loving, give God permission to bring change in you, be it ever so uncomfortable in the process.