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How do you know?
If you have not read the book of Esther go ahead and do so.
It will give you scope to your existence in tough times and easy times both in
a way you never thought could be possible. Trust me, we all have moments when
we wonder how someone knew what we needed just when we needed it.
We all have a time when we need something, or someone to help
us in a way we never thought possible. We have probably all had a moment when
we just thought we had to do things ourselves to get the answer. And while that
is true Esther shines alight on the moments that we do, and Jesus shines a
light on when we don’t have to do it ourselves.
But, how do you know?
Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a
moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews
are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for
the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.
Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” Esther
4:13-1432
A deaf man with a
speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his
hands on the man to heal him. Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could
be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own
fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said,
“Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” Mark 7:32-34
Jesus stepped aside to heal the man they had brought Him.
How did they know to bring him to Jesus? How did they know it was time for him
to be healed? Perhaps He was deaf for such a time as this? People know today
that God will heal, can heal, may heal, in His time and His way, because we
believe the Bible to be truthful and this story to be true.
After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley
with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer,
knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The
leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers
and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and
weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.
Jesus fully realized
all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who
are you looking for?” he asked. I told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “And
since I am the one you want, let these others go.” He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I
did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”
Then Simon Peter drew
a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back
into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has
given me?” John 18:1-11
Jesus healed the ear and continued on doing what He knew was
the thing that had to be done.
They lead Him away to be questioned more, and abused, and
worse. Meanwhile Peter who had once claimed that he would never Jesus leave Jesus
or desert Him, stood nearby. Jesus knew the time and the hour, He knew what
would come next. He knew the point, the plan, and the circumstances. He knew
Peter would fail, but that He would forgive Him. He knew there was a purpose to
all of this. The timing and everything.
It was not the time for Peter, or the others to fight hand and
sword, but to trust Him to do what He came to do.
Meanwhile, as Simon Peter was standing by the fire warming
himself, they asked him again, “You’re not one of his disciples, are you?” He
denied it, saying, “No, I am not.” But one of the household slaves of the high
priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see
you out there in the olive grove with Jesus?” Again Peter denied it. And
immediately a rooster crowed. John 18:25-27
Oh, the terror, the pain that must of struck through Peter’s
heart as he heard that rooster!
The same pain we feel when we realize that we are wrong and
Jesus is right. That it was not the time for us to do the work but for Him to
do the work in us, and through us, and for others. It was a pain of shame that he
failed Jesus, a pain of failure of self pride, a pain of knowing he was wrong.
Jesus knew Peter meant well. He just also knew just like us, Peter was human
and would fail. Peter could not have
known what would happen, but Jesus did.
The way to know, is to know Jesus. To trust that when stuff
happens we are not to draw the sword to fight but pick up our sword of the
Spirit, our Bible and fight with that.
Fight fear
Fight anger
Fight impatience.
In His Word…
Read it, find the answers as far as we can know and trust God
to take care of what we do not know, and cannot know.
Start with Esther, Read John 18. But then read more of the
Bible. Look up the things in your Concordance,
or search it on your Bible app, that has stumped you in life. God has an answer
somewhere, you may not like it but He does have an answer.
So how do you know? Or How do YOU know? I don’t, I trust God
who does!
Go and do likewise! In Jesus’ name,
Teresa Wilson