Silence Is a Choice

Good Afternoon! I hope your quarantine days are going well.

Yesterday morning, we read the devotional, but we didn’t say our daily prayer. Wow, the day spiralized into a hot mess. Everybody had a melt down. In the afternoon, I said a prayer with my kids. I can’t say that it got better, but who knows how it would have gone without that afternoon prayer?

Staying silent is a choice. Sometimes, it is good to remain silent. Other times, we need to say something. It can be scary. The old me would have said something, without thinking, like a burst of thoughts thrown into words. I should have  stopped and prayed, before doing or saying anything.

We have to ask God what to do. We have to have faith in God. We have to be willing to lose everything, if that is God’s will.

In the book of Esther, her father figure spoke a hard truth to her. If she did not say anything, it didn’t mean that she would be safe. She may not be safe in silence or by bravely speaking the truth.

I love this verse, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
–Esther 4:13-14 (NKJV)

God put Esther in that place as Queen to gain favor for the Jewish people and save them. And, she does. God put her there as Queen. She prayed. The Jewish people prayed. God gave her favor with the king.

On the day the enemies of the Jews hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred.  The Jews overpowered those who hated them. God turned the tables of their enemies. What seemed to be a sure thing, completely changed. God changes outcomes.

On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them.
–Esther 9:1 (NKJV)

God can put us in a really good place in life. We can have more than we ever imagined. We can be so comfortable in that place, that we don’t want to make waves and risk losing it all. We forget that if we don’t say anything, we may still lose it all. We need to keep our hearts and eyes focused on God. We need to pray. We need to let the Holy Spirit guide our words, especially when it is scarier to speak than to remain silent.

Remaining silent is a choice. Who knows if this is the moment that God has made for us to rely on faith, do hard things and shine for the Lord?