When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand.
Esther 5:2
Rev. John Hagee, the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church, San Antonio, Texas once said, great faith is the product of great fights. One does not have great faith unless, you have engaged the spiritual enemy over and over and won the victory. Great faith is borne on the battlefield of life when your very existence spiritually and physically is threatened. Great faith does not demand miracles; it produces miracles. It is the kind of faith that starts out without knowing how things will turn out (my paraphrase).
Esther had great faith. Following Haman’s evil plot to eliminate all the Jews from Persia and Media, Mordecai called upon his niece, Esther, to go to king Ahasueras and plead for the life of the Jews. Mordecai believed that Esther had been brought to her position in the palace “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). Esther knew that anyone who entered the king’s presence without an invitation could get killed. Despite this danger, Esther determined that she would use her royal position to try and save her people (Esther 4:16).
For this mission, Esther started with prayer and then she presented herself before the king throwing all her chips in, “And if I perish, I perish.” That’s great faith. As she stood in the inner court facing the king’s hall, Esther’s faith lay, not in the relationship she had with her husband, but in the relationship, she had with God. She had no Plan B. She had sought God’s face for three days and three nights; and having done everything she could do, she had left everything in God’s hands. She did not demand a specific outcome, she was surrendered to his will. And in her case, God willed that Esther and her people would be saved.
Too often, we resort to a carefully crafted and predictable God, but God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Your current battle may be an opportunity for you to experience God’s miracle in your life. It may be the means by which God intends to build your faith and make you a person of great faith. But first, you must surrender your demands, and then you must relinquish your Plan B. Then with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6) and wait patiently in his court. Trust only in your relationship with him. He is your Father and he knows what’s best for you in this moment.
Dear Father in heaven, I surrender all. I surrender my demands and my Plan B. I give it all to you. The battle is not mine, it is yours. Give me the strength to fight each battle as it comes knowing that you are building great faith in me. And give me grace to accept whatever outcome you have willed for me, with the blessed assurance of your perfect love. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.