Keep looking up

“Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes.” Esther 1.16

The story of Esther is set in a time when customs and laws were very different from our own and the whole story is strange in many ways.  It begins with the King summoning his wife, who refused to come to him.  As a result she was deposed and a search for a new queen began.  It seems so unfair to us!  Queen Vashti seemed to take a stand against being regarded as a mere possession of the King, and yet she lost everything.

This episode was actually the start of a chain of events that ended with God moving in incredible power to save his people from the scheming in the King’s court.  At the heart of this story is God’s stunning ability to use what might seem to us to be unfair and wrong situations to bring about his purposes.  It still seems unfair that Vashti was treated as she was – and it may seem unfair that you are treated in the way that you often are – but what this story teaches us is to keep looking up.

God was at work in this situation and he used it to save his people.  When things turn against you, even if they seem unfair, why not lift your eyes from your present circumstances and instead invite God to reveal his glory in them?  If it’s hard knowing quite what to pray, just saying the name ‘Jesus’ brings him right into the heart of it.  Keep looking up!

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