26 February 2015 - knock, knock

Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.

Help us God. We too have no one but you who can really help us. We don't always realize this as acutely as Queen Esther but it is true nevertheless.

Esther can teach us this morning. When her people are threatened she is not content to hide in the comfort of palace life. She goes before the king for them, even though this means taking her life in her hand. What does she know that we don't? Where does she find her courage?

As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.

Esther knows who you are. She trusts in you. She knows that she stands in continuity with the stories she reads in the bible. They are her forefathers, not fiction. They show the real way in which God protects and delivers his people. What do we hear when we listen to the bible. Do we recognize the books of our forefathers?  We should, because "it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring."

We can say with confidence, "The LORD will complete what he has done for me" because that is what you do LORD. That is who you are, "for you have made great above all things your name and your promise."

Even more then Esther, we have good reason to ask, to seek, and to knock. You are not distant LORD. You are more than the God of our forefathers. You yourself are our heavenly Father and you give good things to those who ask. You give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (cf. Luk. 11:13). The Spirit in turn increases our confidence in you as our Father, because "by him we cry, "Abba, Father" (cf. Rom. 8:15). This makes even more confident that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (cf. Phi. 1:6).

You are a God of deliverance and salvation. You intervene in history. You intervene in our lives. You make a real difference. All of the hopes that we have which are worth having are worth entrusting to you. Fulfillment of these desires doesn't always come quite the way we want. But you always give good things to those who ask. You always give the Holy Spirit when we cry out. Even if our prayers aren't answered in the way we hope our confidence in your promise grows.

Lord, on the day we call to you for help you do answer us, and so

Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”