“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)?

Her uncle’s strong words to Queen Esther ring through the ages to remind us not to doubt God’s purposes for our lives. 

You may think you are serving your Savior in insignificant places or against insurmountable odds, but an infinitely wise God has put you on this earth and with specific people “for such a time as this!”  

Forty years before making their escape from an Islamic government that had forbidden Christianity, the Ooduck people had learned of Jesus’ grace from two young, single missionary women serving with Sudan Interior Mission.  

The women could not have imagined the full impact of their mission. So deeply did their witness reach into others’ hearts that many fled to a refugee camp in Ethiopia rather than abandon their faith. 

When the mission organization that had originally sent the missionaries learned of the Ooducks’ perseverance, they organized a return visit of the two, now-elderly missionaries. In the refugee camp the women discovered 13,000 Ooducks who were living for Jesus. They would be safe in eternity despite their earthly deprivations. 

We will not fully know the impact of our lives for our Savior until we are with him. But we are assured that for such a time as this he put us on this earth for the people he puts in our lives!

Prayer:
Lord, help me remain faithful in the face of discouragement, hardship, or apparent insignificance to others knowing that you prepared me for such a time as this.