Favor

God put Esther in a place of favor.  But, I have come to realize, that the favor shown to Esther was to accomplish God’s plan for Israel.  Mordecai says to Esther, “perhaps you have come to royalty for such a time as this.”  Esther has always been marked as a hero for putting her life on the line to save her people.  I was always confused because it didn’t seem like such a stretch, really: the king adored her which brought her to the place in which she was favored.  

What struck me is what Mordecai said before he delivered the much-quoted line above: “for if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.”  Then, he goes on to deliver his continued wisdom.

Esther was shown favor by King Xerxes, but more specifically, by God.  Often, we interpret the “favor of God” as being promoted by worldly terms, or having several good things happen to us or coming into some great financial abundance.  In fact, many people practice obedience out of expectation of favor.  

However, according to Esther’s story, true favor is simply being in the right place at the right time to accomplish God’s will.  Obedience, then, is seeking his will to accomplish in our circumstances.  It’s true that not all circumstances are from God; many of our situations are of our own device, but consider Job, who was favored by God, a "servant...blameless and upright".  He did not exactly have what the world would see as a streak of favor, but God calls him favored because he allowed faith to outweigh his circumstance.

Psalm 147:10-11 says, “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”  People look at my body and they see “broken”, which explains why their first inclination is often to pray for healing or to question the depth of my faith, much like Job’s friends did amidst his trial.  

I ask you to consider that perhaps what looks like a bout of bad luck, what looks like a streak of good luck, what looks like a struggle, or what looks like an abundance are all simply opportunities for us to exercise God’s favor: to realize that we are placed in our situation for a specific time.  If we do not act, God’s will shall certainly carry on, but favor is being chosen to carry out God’s plan in a place and time that might just include our unusual circumstance, no matter how ugly it might look.