Tag Archives: honor

I love the story of Esther. There are so many old things in that book that I could go on and on for days. If you aren’t familiar with her story, the king had a beautiful wife and wanted to show her off after partying for seven days. When she refused to be shown off, he killed her. He then held a beauty pageant to find a new queen. Enter Esther. She was an orphan who was raised by her cousin Mordecai. The king loved her more than the others and made her queen.

After some time the king promoted a man named Haman. He was prideful and arrogant. He wanted people to bow to him as he paraded through the streets. Everyone did except Mordecai. Haman was upset, talked to the king and got him to agree to kill all of Mordecai’s race. Mordecai sent word to Esther to see if she could go to the king for help since she was the queen. Esther’s response is what I want to discuss today. She said, “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless he holds out his golden scepter.”

The God we serve is the King of Kings. He is above all others who are here on this earth. He does not behave like earthly kings though. We don’t have to be afraid to go into His inner court. We do not have to worry about Him killing us if we go before Him without an invitation. In fact, He encourages it. There is nothing that God wants more than for you to pray and go before His throne.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most (NLT).” We don’t have to be afraid to enter the throne room of the King of Kings. The scripture says we’ll find both grace and mercy when we do! Esther didn’t think she would receive either when she went before the king. In fact, later on in her conversation, she knew she had to go in there to do something. She said, “Although it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”

When is the last time you went to God that determined with your needs? When is the last time you were willing to risk everything by going to God and entering into His presence to the point that you were willing to die? I think if our prayers had that kind of guts, that kind of determination and that kind of boldness we’d see a lot more answered. Instead our prayers are weak, timid and frail. I’m putting myself in the mix with you. I’m guilty of offering timid prayers.

God honors bold prayers. He honors us if we are willing to go beyond the outer courts of His presence and enter into the inner courts. Hebrews 4:16 ends with “we will find grace when we need it most.” When we need something most, we don’t let barricades stand in our way. We don’t let what others will think of us sway us. We don’t let tradition stop us. We go to God in desperate need with boldness to present our needs. When we do that, He will raise His golden scepter and we will receive mercy.