Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman

We were asked to make a list of all the things we learned from the book of Esther study. So here I go.

* God is no where metioned in the book of Esther, but He is so visble! So evident that it was Him who saved the Jews!

*God is going to fulfill Christ's destiny with or without me, but He won't fulfill my destiny without me!

*God will NEVER leave me or FORSAKE me.

*Characteristics of Esther: gracious, respectful, obedient, thankful, submissive, listening heart, teachable, wise, humble, unselfish-not self promoting....characteristics I need to have.

*2 Peter 1:4 "And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires."

*The most frequent command in the Bible is do not be afraid! Hebrews 2:14-15 "By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death." ---I know Christ will always be there to pick me up!

*TAKE COURAGE!

*One of the most important concepts of providence in the Book of Esther is Time.

*We will lose our strength when we wait upon the event, but when we wait upon the Lord we will gain strength! We will be renewed!

*I need to be more aware of when the Lord is speaking and I need to have the attitude of "Speak Lord, Your servant is listening."

*PRIDE: Our pride is sin, we need to humble ourselves and bow down to CHRIST! 1 Peter 5:5 "...apposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall."

*We are not the center of attention...if we are thinking we are this plays into Satan's hand.

* REVERSAL OF DESTINY: Esther 6:6-11 Isaiah 53:2-5, Revelation 19:11-16 Reversal of Destiny in Christ's life!

* Esther and the Jews saw a reversal of destiny: Haman wanted to kill, slaughter, and annihilate all the Jews...but God saved them. Haman was killed and the Jews defended themselves killing 75,800 men!

*There is no other but God! Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 4:35,39; Isaiah 44:8; Isaiah 45:5-6; Acts 4:12

(1. No other one but Him. 2. He has us to be involved in the plan. WE MUST LISTEN!)

*Romans 8:37 "No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us."

*Phillipians 4:13 "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."

*"If you fully obey the LORD your God ... the LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven" (Deut. 28: 1a,7)

*God wants to empower us to become warriors! To make some demons tremble!

*"I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies one made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith" (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

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