Walk With Me #Deararn.

STRONG AND COURAGEOUS

Landing in the King’s harem has to be some load to carry. How did she do it? Did her person have anything to do with why she succeeded? Taking a closer look at Esther’s journey in the palace, we see many scenarios where inner strength and courage would have come to play. She was young and the prospect of life in the palace was not particular enticing. It was true that being queen had its own pecks, but here she was, a number amongst the many young girls that had been brought into the harem.

There were many reasons to feel inadequate, it was a competition and she was already at a disadvantage. Why would the Persian king chose her? She was foreign! That her identity was kept secret was a burden to bear as she had to be cautious, she could not let anything give her away. This meant no stories that referred to her people, not word or act out of sync with the Persian culture. That would not have been easy for anyone let alone young Esther.

When it was time to go rescue her people, she displayed such grace and strength it was difficult to imagine that just a little while before, she was just a young girl under Mordecai’s care.

She took on the assignment, paced herself and got the job done.

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

SEIZED OPPORTUNITY

When the journey began, everything looked lack luster. Things were bad and there was no use dreaming about the unimaginable. There may have been countless prophecies declaring her as royal, the constant question would be; how, where, when? In a foreign land, not likely!

What were the odds, there was a sitting queen in the palace, the King was not particularly a nice man, how would things play themselves out? Only God knew.

But just like that, events turned, the Queen was dethroned and a search for a new one was embarked on. By the time she saw herself in the King’s harem, she knew she had to seize the moment. It was time to deploy all she learned from her cousin. She learnt obedience, gentleness and quietness of spirit comportment amongst other virtues. It was not hard to defer to Hegai, the eunuch, she already was used to deference living with Mordecai. The effect was that she not only found favor, she was able to retain the favor.

Esther showed that it was not enough to be beautiful and favorable, there was need to add inner strength and to rely on the help provided by God.

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

Ever heard the phrase, ‘if you fail to plan, you have planned to fail?’ Planning is good, no excellent, as long as God is in the driver’s seat. God has been where you are trying to go so let Him show you the way. He is Lord over all creation remember? Until he shows you the way, your plans have no life. Until you seed rulership to Him, you run the risk of becoming victim to the circumstances of life.

Let God determine your actions. That which is a mountain to you is plain before Him. All creation defers to God. Give Him your ways, run your actions by Him. Does it mean you are responsible for nothing. Nooo, your duty is to find out God’s will and follow His dictates. The only thing that will endure for time and eternity is that which originates, is sustained and end in God.

#deararn

#planning`

#doitright

#keepgodfirst

#closerwalkwithgod

#discipleship

#instafaith

#anneajadiinspirations

#ancientwisdomformodernliving #goodunderstanding #peace #joy #wisdomforlivinglife #wisdomforliving

What is it about anger and rage that blinds whoever plays house for them? How is it they would not relent until they carried out their scheme? Does history and experience not teach that anger resided in the heart of fools? Why would anyone decide to make their life’s pursuit the downfall of another man?

All of these questions we may not be able to answer correctly except we look at what the driving force behind the scenes were.

The devil is always at the helm of everything evil and since he is incapable of producing life, it does not matter who the subject(s) are, they always ended up dead, destroyed or robbed…

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

Providence was again stationed and waiting in the harem for Esther our lady. She showed up and was immediately singled out. Pray, what did Hegai see? What was it about her that distinguished her from the rest? Was there a way of recognizing potential? If there was, what were the parameters? All we were told was that the Esther found favor with him. Let us get our imagination to work for a moment, at least four hundred your girls were brought in before Hegai, they were all beautiful. They were all in their bloom so what was not to describe as beautiful? If they were all paraded, at some point, one would be tired of seeing beauty. At some point, they would all look the same. The point here is, there is something to say for Hegai’s discerning abilities as he picked out Esther and did not end there. He separated her, put her in a special part of the harem and even gave her seven servants. How did the other girls react, we were not told but let’s imagine they did and probably marked Esther from then on?

To have separated Esther could only mean her lessons were specially carried out. He must have devoted time to tell her about the King Ahasuerus, his personality and what was expected of the queen. He would have hinted her about the King’s temper and how to handle it and may have encouraged her and given her hope that she might have a shot at the throne. May be he even told her about the deposed queen and what she did wrong. Was he able to see through Esther’s fears, did she do a good job of masking them? What about the secret her cousin told her not to disclose, was there a possibility that Hegai could have guessed?

Because there were so many of them in the harem, it was nearly impossible not to have cliques and all kinds of intrigues. Mortdecai warned her about comporting herself wisely, he advised her to be focused and always remember there was a reason she got to the palace in the first place. Hegai must have reinforced that as the only report we have of her life in the harem was that she sought Hegai’s opinion and abided by his advice.

There is no way of telling what Hegai saw in Esther that endeared him to her, we can only conclude that the hand of her God was upon her and the eunuch was discerning enough to see and work with it…

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite. He was Esther’s cousin and her adoptive parent. Even though to compare his effect in Esther’s life to that of the Holy Spirit and the believer, would be a poor comparison, it however, stands to reason that there were some similarities. Her parents had left the scene and she was left in the very able hands of her older cousin. He would play the role of teacher, instructor, admonisher, guide, all geared to bring her to the place of purpose.

…

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

Let us take our imaginations back to the day the King’s guards showed up at Mordecai’s home. The news had gone round alright and the hope was that the guards would skip their house, but they showed up and Esther was taken but not before Mordecai pulled her aside and gave her a Persian name, Esther, meaning ‘star.’ He gave her strict orders that she was not to reveal her identity as a Jew to anyone. The unfolding events could not have afforded her the opportunity to argue, there was no time. She just has to accent and trust the Jewish God to find a way of using the situation for His glory. Mordecai instructed her some more and released her to the hand of providence.

“‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. ”’ “So, they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”(Numbers 6:24-27)

The pull must have tugged at his heart, perhaps the feeling of failing her parents by not protecting her enough plagued his thoughts? Surely, they would understand, they also lived in Persia before they died, and they were conversant with Persian ways.

Esther found herself in the company of so many young virgins, none of them knowing what would become of them. The emotions were mixed. Some were happy at the prospect of being exposed to the palace and others were sad, the rule of their lives was being taken over.

Esther’s emotions was all over the place, she was afraid, intrigued, curious all at the same time. She thought about her cousin’s instructions, suppose something went wrong and her secret became known? What were the odds that this plan was foolproof? All she could do was hope and wait. Her chances were one in four hundred or so and who said she stood any chance to be the next queen especially since the one she replacing was reported to be beautiful and loved by her husband? Only providence would tell.

Providence was waiting for Esther to show up as he ensured she found favor with the head of the eunuchs, Hegai. The sign of God’s blessing on the children of Israel was His mark and for Esther, that showed up in the way Hegai distinguished her and gave her special treatment. She was put in a special part of the palace and assigned seven servants to make her stay in the harem more comfortable.

If we closed the curtain at this point in Esther’s story, all we would see is darkness, gloom and uncertainty. We could even go as far judging the story as unfair.

It is the same with us when we face dark times, the times life chooses to throw a spanner in the works or when we take a wrong turn, and everything tumbles out of control.

We would be quick to wander who we offended and why things were taking that kind of turn. Think about it. Esther, orphan, adopted, exiled, abducted, all in her youth. All of those attributes were weighty enough on their own. One person, a young maiden bearing all that weight. What did she do? What kind of attention was her life seeking?

How you saw the glass, half filled or a half empty, would determine how you interpret the events of Esther’s life. If you saw it as half full, you determined it was favor at work. And if on the contrary, you saw a half empty glass, you would see the whole story as life dealing the poor girl a very hard hand. For you, the question would be; was there a need to have all that drama before a plot could be revealed? Did life have to distinguish her by misfortune?

What are the strands in the story of your life? How are you dealing with them? Are you able to piece them apart and weave them into something into a beautiful tapestry?

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

The whole search was necessitated by the vacancy in the palace. Queen Vashti was deposed, her throne empty, and the King was lonely. For someone who had access to myriads of women to prefer one was testament to the fact that his bride was special and if he then lost her, he would obviously miss her absence. He woke up, the morning after a drunken spree and desired his Queen, he sent for her only to be told she had been taken out. His action was regretted, but he could not break his own laws.

It was at this point that the story of Esther’s life became interesting.

At the King Ahasuerus’ command, the guards combed the length and breadth of the land picking every young girl that they saw fit to replace Queen Vashti. Word made their rounds, and everyone tried to stay home. Mordecai even tried to hide Esther but the nosy neighbours already let it slip that Mordecai lived with a young maiden and she was definitely home. They marched in and searched everywhere until they found where she was hiding. Esther was taken, and she joined other young and extremely beautiful girls on their journey to the harem.

Let us face it, the prospect of being queen was not a bad idea, but for Esther, what were the odds? she was not even Persian, plus she was one of four hundred stunningly beautiful virgins. The King only needed one Queen but all four hundred of them would have go through the selection process that lasted a whole year! They took a whole year to prepare for one night with the king and there were at least four hundred maidens. So, in essence it took almost three years to find a worthy replacement for Vashti. What kind of a kingdom preoccupies itself for three whole years sampling all kinds of maidens ostensibly in search of a Queen?

It does not end there, If a virgin was chosen, she would be queen and if not, she would return to the second harem where the King kept his concubines. Once in the second harem, she could only appear before the king if he sent for her by name. One can only exclaim, really! Waste the lives of 400 promising young girls just so one man can fulfil his desires? Amazing!

The prospects of that kind of life could not have been exciting to a young girl who had her whole life in front of her. She was young and if she returned to Jerusalem, would most likely find a nice young man who would be delighted to have her. To be caught in the vain traditions of this strange land was in itself a contradiction to the life promised to God’s chosen race. Esther was chosen alright but for the purpose of pleasuring a crazy heathen king who surrounded himself with friendly foes whose preoccupation was to jostle for positions? was not a worthy cause. If providence did not wade in, it would be a terrible way to waste God’s inheritance.

Books by Anne Ajadi (Available on Amazon)

Walk With Me In The Footsteps Of Jesus

Heart Matters Life Matters

Navigating The Night Season

You Will Marry Well

Strength For The Journey

God’s Lady In Waiting

Prayer Works

Follow the Story of Queen Esther as narrated by Anne Ajadi

Walk with me as we go through the book, God's Lady in Waiting. A look at the life and times of the Jews with Esther as the lead actor