{"id":14954,"date":"2013-10-01T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T05:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14954"},"modified":"2013-09-30T22:44:05","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T03:44:05","slug":"esther-chapter-53-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/01\/esther-chapter-53-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 5:3-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Esther 5:3-5<\/i><\/h3>\n

And the king said to her, \u201cWhat do you wish, Queen Esther? What<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>is<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>your request? It shall be given to you\u2014up to half the kingdom!\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

So Esther answered, \u201cIf it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Then the king said, \u201cBring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has said.\u201d So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe must keep our focus in check.\u201d \u00a0I think this of my favorite line from today\u2019s reading.\u00a0 It is so true, but can be so hard at times. \u00a0I can imagine myself in Esther\u2019s shoes, or rather sandals. Sitting on a choice, “Do I seek change for myself? Or do I seek change for<\/span> my people?” \u00a0It would be easy to desire and pray for help for herself in this situation…for some sort of relief from the pressure that weighed on her shoulders. But instead she pushed forward with what God was directing her to do, and put the needs of her people above her own.<\/p>\n

Like Darlene beautifully pointed out, this situation mirrors how we should approach our prayer life. \u00a0Our pastor told us this little saying yesterday, \u201cNeed versus Greed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0James 4:3<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend\u00a0it\u00a0on your pleasures.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This made me think. \u00a0It\u2019s not as if I\u2019m asking God to help me find 1 million dollars lying on the street, but I may be asking God for a promotion at work. \u00a0Why?\u00a0 To further His Kingdom or to further my own?\u00a0 I may be asking God for strength to get through the day, and to accomplish all the tasks I have to do.\u00a0 But why?\u00a0 So I can look good in front of others or so I can do what He has called me to do that day.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think we intentionally say greedy prayers, but I do think that we should pay attention to our motives. \u00a0About a year or so ago, this topic was brought up in church—the topic of what motivates our prayers. \u00a0I continue to pray for my family\u2019s well-being, for financial guidance when money gets tight, for restoration of relationships when they get rough.\u00a0 \u00a0I don\u2019t think James 4:3 is addressing this.\u00a0 But I did add a piece to my prayers, a piece that I try to pray throughout the day. \u00a0I ask that God would open my eyes to areas during my day where I could do His work. \u00a0I prayed that my family would show others His love, that we would see opportunities in which we could grow His kingdom.<\/p>\n

I am a\u00a0naturally greedy person; I think most people are. \u00a0Not in a hording\/<\/span><\/span><\/span>not sharing kind of way. \u00a0But in\u00a0how it applies to our prayers.\u00a0 I want to automatically pray for myself—for a good day for me<\/em>, for peace for me<\/em>, for wisdom for me<\/em>.\u00a0 The question that Darlene asks at the end of this section is not a condemning question.\u00a0 I see it as a growth question; an opportunity to grow for the better, an opportunity to be more intentional in our words that we lift up to our Father.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Wk5_Ellison_Esther\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Esther 5:3-5 And the king said to her, \u201cWhat do you wish, Queen Esther? What\u00a0is\u00a0your request? It shall be given to you\u2014up to half the kingdom!\u201d So Esther answered, \u201cIf it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.\u201d Then the king said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":14958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[3511,1266,3475,3911,3512,425,3913,3914,506,3514,3912,791,1075,1141],"class_list":["post-14954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-book-of-esther","tag-christian-womens-fellowship","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-esther-53-5","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-greed","tag-growth","tag-holy-spirit","tag-introduction-to-esther","tag-james-43","tag-prayer","tag-tonya-ellison","tag-womens-online-bible-study","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wk5_Ellison_Esther.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3Tc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14954"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14972,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14954\/revisions\/14972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}