For Such a Time as This

Lying on my bed, I stared up at the mosquito mesh separating me from the ceiling. Outside, the rising sun told me it was time to get up and have my devotions. But I wanted to lie there and savor a rare experience. Perhaps it came because it was the Sabbath. Instead of wandering off to random subjects, as it usually does first thing in the morning, my mind was occupied with deep thoughts.

Suddenly, I was aware of a deep desire to save a soul. To bring someone to Jesus. But along with this thought came the anticipation of being able to tell all my friends. I began to question my motives. God was near, so I asked Him, "Is it wrong to want to save a soul?" Surely not, I thought. He said assured me that it is not wrong, but that my questioning was valid. The motive must not be self.

I then desired to have a selfless motive, and immediately God answered the cry of my heart. The desire to save souls came again, stronger, and this time with the right motive: to show them character of the God who is love and to love them with His love.

~~~~~

Lord, please fan this flame, this desire, till it sears my heart.

For Your heart was once seared.
For mine.

You did everything You could to win my heart and save my soul. It cost You everything, even Your own existence.

Though it seared Your heart with inexpressible, incalculable, indefinable pain, You counted me more priceless than Yourself.

In three words? God. is. Love.

~~~~~

After more deep thinking I got on my knees to start my devotions. Wondering what I should read, my eyes fell on "Esther" in my reading plan guide. A phrase that has been personally meaningful to me repeated itself in my mind: "Who knows whether you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

So I read. And I searched. And I prayed.

"...from every quarter of this world of ours, comes the cry of sin-stricken hearts for a knowledge of the God of love. Millions upon millions have never so much as heard of God or of His love revealed in Christ. It is their right to receive this knowledge. They have an equal claim with us in the Saviour’s mercy. And it rests with us who have received the knowledge...to answer their cry. To every household and every school, to every parent, teacher, and child upon whom has shone the light of the gospel, comes at this crisis the question put to Esther the queen at that momentous crisis in Israel’s history, 'Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' Esther 4:14" (Ed 262.2).

The question is for me.

If you have received the light of the gospel, the question is for you.

Who knows whether you are in your specific position or circumstance, for such a time as this?

Who knows whether you have had the privilege and opportunity
to become a son or daughter of the King,
to know the God so many people do not, for such a time as this?

Love knows. This is the time.

God counts them more priceless than Himself. Do you?

Will you, with me, let your heart be seared?