All Things Together for Good!!!

Reflection:  Today’s readings reflect the problems we all face in life.  The psalmist confesses his pain, problems, admits his own iniquity and the troubles that accompany his sin.  But one thing he does do right, he seeks the Lord.  His prayer is simple, do not forsake me.  Do not be far from me, and come quickly to help me my Lord and my Savior.  Though David did not yet witness Jesus, His Savior in person, you see that he is seeking the Lord and realizing his only hope is in Him.

                                                                                                                      

In a similar way, Paul teaches the new Christians in Rome to seek God in all their problems.  He teaches them that they have the Spirit, who intercedes for them in their issues. Importantly the Spirit reminds them that they are God’s own children, and if God is for them who can be against them.  Then comes the famous verse, “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”  This reminds us that even when our prayers aren’t answered right away, God is accomplishing a purpose much bigger than our current circumstances.  Often this verse is taken by itself, but the verse is really not complete without verse 29, right after it.  There Paul says, “For those God foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, the firstborn of many brothers.”  Here we see the true purpose in our trials that they are making us into the image of the Son.  Even Jesus was made perfect in His suffering, and His purpose came to fruition on the cross where He cried out to God to help him and not be far from him. 

We know God is sovereign and nothing happens outside His will and purpose.  Paul says even Creation itself if subject to God’s purpose and longs to be set free.  Even in the foreign king’s picking Esther to be the queen, the King had no idea he was fulfilling God’s plan for deliverance for the Jews to come from this beautiful young Jewish woman. 

As you start off a new week, in fact Holy Week, submit your life to God knowing that He is for you.  This week we will remember the Last Supper on Thursday, Jesus’ death on the cross to fulfill God’s purpose in Him setting us free from the bondage to sin, and finally on Sunday we will proclaim, “He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed.”  As you have given your life to Christ, you too will be raised from the dead someday, but for now we realize that all things are working together for good, which is God’s purpose in you to make you more like His Son!  Amen. 

Psalm 38:17-22

17 For I am about to fall,

    and my pain is ever with me.

18 I confess my iniquity;

    I am troubled by my sin.

19 Many have become my enemies without cause[a];

    those who hate me without reason are numerous.

20 Those who repay my good with evil

    lodge accusations against me,

    though I seek only to do what is good.

21 Lord, do not forsake me;

    do not be far from me, my God.

22 Come quickly to help me,

    my Lord and my Savior.

Esther 2:1-18

Esther Made Queen

2 Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2 Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it. 5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.

8 When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. 9 She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem. 10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11 Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.

12 Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. 13 And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name. 15 When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. 16 She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.

Romans 8:20-33

20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16:6

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)

In you, O Christ, all boundaries have fallen away. You taught us to see each other as siblings and friends, and invited us to see you in the faces of those in need. This day, may it be so. Amen.