{"id":15479,"date":"2013-10-29T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T05:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15479"},"modified":"2013-10-28T21:35:22","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T02:35:22","slug":"esther-chapter-94-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/29\/esther-chapter-94-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 9:4-5"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Esther 9:4-5<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

For Mordecai was great in the king\u2019s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for this man Mordecai became increasingly prominent. Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated them.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Life can feel like a battle sometimes.\u00a0 Well, honestly, life\u00a0CAN<\/strong> be a battle most of the time. Some days the battles waged are more intense than others, but, they are battles none-the-less. Some days the battle is to get the kids up and out the door on time; some days the battle is the foreclosure notice in the mail.\u00a0 Sometimes the battle is in the workplace, or in the doctor\u2019s office. Life can<\/em><\/strong> be a battle. The story of Esther is a battle in itself—from start to finish.<\/p>\n

The days when the battle is intense, it can feel like we don\u2019t have anything to protect us.\u00a0 We know Christ is there, and we know He is in our corner…but what do we have to defend us<\/span> is tangible and that we can reach for when temptation, doubt, fear, anger, are staring us in the face and taunting us.<\/p>\n

One of the most assuring feelings is knowing that we do have something to reach for…that we have a weapon at our disposal stronger than any battle we may face. \u00a0We have Christ and His written Word.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

1 John 4:4<\/h3>\n

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because <\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.<\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0The sword.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword\u2026\u201d (Esther 9:5)<\/p>\n

What is this sword? \u00a0No, we\u2019re not expected to carry around a huge piece of metal on our waist, but we are expected to carry around a different sword in our heart, the Sword of the Spirit—the Bible—our instruction book. \u00a0This is our defense and our protection.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ephesians 6:14-17<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, <\/b>and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;<\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This is a wonderful gift, a wonderful tool, and a wonderful source of protection.\u00a0 Like Darlene encourages us to do, we should look at the many ways in which the Word of God can protect us. \u00a0It protects us not only from the outside world but from ourselves.\u00a0 For example, when I\u2019m tempted to complain, I know where to go (Philippians 2:14<\/b>), when I\u2019m tempted to worry, I know where to go (Matthew 6:25-27<\/b>), and there are so many more verses I know I can go to when I need a sword.\u00a0 But it takes effort on my part.\u00a0\u00a0 It takes study. and<\/span> it takes me immersing myself in the Scripture so it is on my heart and mind when I need it.<\/p>\n

The last question Darlene asks of us is to look inside and examine our study habits: do we read the Bible often?\u00a0\u00a0Do we study it as we\u2019re called to do?\u00a0 This is not a condemning question but an opportunity for growth.\u00a0 I know that this is an area than I need to work on, (and am so thankful for how technology can help with this goal).\u00a0 When you get a chance, think about how you can grow in this area, how you can strengthen the Word inside of you.<\/p>\n

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

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

Lord, we\u00a0breathe a sigh of relief when we can reach inside and pull from Your Word, when You bring a Scripture to mind that will help us in the situation we\u2019re in.\u00a0 Lord, time isn\u2019t something that we have a lot of, but please touch our hearts and remind us how important it is to strengthen our Sword.\u00a0 And thank You for giving us this tool, for giving us the Sword.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name we pray.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Esther 9:4-5 For Mordecai was great in the king\u2019s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for this man Mordecai became increasingly prominent. Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated them. Life can feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":15499,"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":[4070,144,3511,1266,3475,1592,4300,3512,425,506,3514,4301,2491,4299,1075,1141],"class_list":["post-15479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-1-john-44","tag-bible","tag-book-of-esther","tag-christian-womens-fellowship","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-ephesians-614-17","tag-esther-94-5","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-holy-spirit","tag-introduction-to-esther","tag-matthew-625-27","tag-philippians-214","tag-the-sword-of-the-spirit","tag-tonya-ellison","tag-womens-online-bible-study","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Wk8_Ellison_Esther.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-41F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15479","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=15479"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15501,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15479\/revisions\/15501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}