I am continuing to read and study the book of Esther. To give the whole recap of the book of Esther: This book starts with a king of Persia who is having a banquet and wants his wife to show off her beauty to his friends and workers. She refuses, and this greatly angers the king. To handle this situation, he chooses to have a competition to find a new queen. Esther ends up winning this competition and becoming queen. Then her cousin and guardian, Mordecai hears of a terrible plot created by Haman, the King’s assistant, to murder all of the Jews.
The whole book is incredibly interesting, but chapter 5 is when things really start heating up. In the beginning chapters, the main assistant of the king, Haman, has just requested to kill off all of the Jews in Persia. The king agreed. This made Haman incredibly happy. He was in one of the highest positions in the kingdom. Then unbeknownst to him as to why, he was invited by Queen Esther, to go to a banquet where it was only him and the king. Now, he is even more happy because he got to go to a banquet with the two highest individuals in the kingdom. Haman is described in the Bible at this time as: “That day Haman left full of joy and in good spirits.” (Esther 5:9)
However, there will be something that will soon change his mood. You may rightly assume this would be a death in the family or someone trying to attack him and rob him. This type of traumatic event would rightly change the mood of anyone. However, these examples are not what changed Haman’s mood. What changed Haman’s mood was Mordecai standing in the street. Mordecai refused to bow and to praise Haman in the city streets. After this event, Haman was very upset. He was angry and then instantly had to go to his wife and friends to complain. He even says this after bragging about all his accolades, “Still, none of this satisfies me since I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate all the time.” (Esther 5:13)
This is wild. Haman just had the best day, and yet he was so upset because someone didn’t want to bow down to him. It is hard to imagine going from such a high to such a low over something so trivial, yet maybe this is something that can easily happen in our lives on a regular basis. I am going to be completely honest when I say I can easily fluctuate in my feelings and my emotions. I overall try to be kind and happy on a regular basis throughout the day. However, there are times when I do become easily frustrated. I can be in a great mood and I am very happy with all my blessings and a lot of things going well, and then something can go wrong, like I make a mistake, or I have to spend more time on something I hadn’t originally planned and then I am in a bad mood.
I don’t know how many of us can often forget all of the blessings we each personally have been given. I don’t know each of your personal blessings, but I know I can say which blessings I have been given and need to make sure I am incredibly grateful for each day. For example, I have an apartment to live in, food to each and every day, a job I love and enjoy, and family and friends who love me and I love them. I have been incredibly blessed. That even when something does not go the way I wished it would, I can still be grateful for what I do have. This can even be with my car. I have a car, and it is incredibly helpful for all the different tasks I need to complete in a day, especially within my job and going to visit others. However, my car often does have low tire pressure in the winter. I know this is pretty common, but I have to take my car to get tires filled a couple of times a week. I can easily become frustrated, and while it is an annoyance, I also know I need to be aware of my blessings of even having a vehicle.
I do always want to remind people to constantly count your blessings. It is important to daily thank God for your blessings. Otherwise, we can easily forget them when there is something that does go wrong or we don’t have something we really want. Psalm 118 verses 1 through 4 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say,“His steadfast love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
The challenge for this week is to spend a little bit of time to reflect and pray over your blessings. This could be anything small or anything big that you often can forget about, but it is something to remember when something starts to go wrong. Besides my car example, I often need to be very grateful for my job. I absolutely love my job and all that I get to do in the Waterloo community. Sometimes I may get frustrated by the little things that go wrong, but I need to remember how blessed I am in my job before I really get frustrated. I hope you have a good week to think about your biggest blessings.
Colossians 3:23 Blog 