A Time Like This

I was reading in chapter four of Esther this morning, the part where Mordecai is encouraging Esther to take a stand for her people.  Esther was afraid and rightly so.  If she chose to take a stand for her people, it would mean that she would need to tell the king that she was Jewish too.  Therefore, not only was she was putting her own life on the line by going to see the king uninvited, but the decree to exterminate the Jewish people would include her too!  Being the queen would not save her life!  As I read how Mordecai encouraged Esther to choose to save her people, I was reminded that I need to be this kind of help and encouragement to those around me.  Many times when a loved one is going through a difficult situation, or is faced with a life-changing decision to make, I will have a tendency to ask God for a quick and easy solution to their problem.  I forget that God is glorified as His servants go through difficult times.  It is so easy to allow myself to forget that I am to pray that they are strengthened for the trial, that God would show Himself strong to them; and not to just pray that the trial goes away.
There will be times that a loved one will need to decide if they are going to obey God or not.  So often in these times there are "extenuating circumstances" that make the correct choice hard to see, and even more difficult to make.  I can sympathize with this, for often this choice is mine to make too.  Still, God requires us to speak the truth, He asks us to be willing to make the hard choices, to be willing to obey no matter what.  God asks of us to encourage our loved ones to make the choice to choose the call that is placed on their life.
Mordecai told Esther that she alone needed to decide what she was going to do, Mordecai could not make the decision for her! Just as Mordecai encouraged Esther, I am to point others to Jesus!  He alone can give them the courage to say, "Yes, LORD."
I will close with a sentence that I have written in my Bible next to this passage in Esther.....
"Let us not weaken those whom we love by weak sympathy, but let us love them enough to detach them from ourselves and strengthen their hands in God."