Last week a girl who we know lost her mother in a tragic car accident. Her mother was only 56 years old. Fifty-six! My heart breaks for the pain she must be suffering and it only makes me wonder how I might react to such a loss.

Several weeks ago in our Beth Moore study she taught on fear. Tears trickled down my cheeks almost the entire lesson. Why are we so easily ensnared by fear? If we're not careful it consumes us and can hold us back from everything that God has for us. Human nature is to self protect, to do whatever it takes to keep from feeling pain or hurt. But, what often happens is that we protect ourselves right out of the calling that God has placed on our life.

In Esther, chapter 4, Mordecai learns of the King's edict that all Jews be destroyed, annihilated on a certain date. Can you imagine someone posting a sign that said, "on this date you shall DIE!" Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and wailed loudly and bitterly at the gate which he had previously worked. Esther sent her eunuch to find out what was bothering her uncle and he instructed Hathach to explain to her the edict and urge her to go into the King's presence and plead for mercy. This is where is gets interesting...Esther's response.

Esther 4: 11

"All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king."

And Mordecai replies in Vs. 13

"Do not think that because YOU are in the king's house YOU alone of all the Jews will escape. For if YOU remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but YOU and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that YOU have come to a royal position for such a time as this?

I don't know about you but if I was Esther I would have been quaking in my persian sandals! :-) Can you imagine?? Your husband hasn't wanted to be in your presence in THIRTY DAYS! Thirty days!!! I think that would give me reason to believe that I had offended him in some way or that he was tired of me with all those concubines he so freely had access to. And Mordecai wanted her to go into the King's presence unsummoned. She would be risking her life.

Esther made a choice though...Esther 4:16

"Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me...... When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.

The power of her choice impacted her destiny. Esther overcame herself in order to do what God had created her and positioned her to do. So, GET OVER YOURSELF! Don't be an obstacle to yourself! No one is born brave. But, you might very well be one brave decision away from the path of your destiny.

So Esther faced the fear. How easy it would have been to be in denial about the situation. She could have argued that there was nothing she could do and that she would take her chances on whether anyone would figure out she was a Jew. But she was courageous! There is no denial in courage. Most definitely deny the reality's victory over you, but not the situation. Can you imagine living without fear? Is that a concept we can even grasp? Do you know that the most frequent command in the Bible is: Don't be afraid? Fill in this blank.

If ( this happens ), then ( I'll )... for example.

If one of my children dies at an early age, then I couldn't go on living.

What is your greatest fear? and how do you see yourself reacting if it became a reality? The truth, whether we want to believe it or not, is that should that which you fear most happens... Your God is still faithful! I'll be honest and say that the thought of losing one of my kids or me being taken from my kids terrified me before I heard Beth Moore teach on this. I could lay in bed at night and imagine all the scenerios of what could happen and how I could go on living if the thing I feared worst might come to past. I am a firm believer in praying against those things that we fear: "Lord please spare me from such tragedy." But, if that cup doesn't pass me by then my God is still God. This has completely FREED me in a way I can't even begin to describe. Now my fill in looks like this:

If one of my children dies at an early age, then God will see me through.

If one of my children dies at an early age, then God will restore my joy.

If one of my children dies at an early age, then God will help me overcome.

Hebrews 2:14-15 from The Message says,

"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."

Are you scared to death of death? We can be in a stronghold of death so much that we never really live. The shadow of death can be just as worse as dying. Take the courage that God has so freely offered to you and LIVE! Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgement that something more important is at stake. I can remember being prompted by the spirit to speak a word to someone in our congregation one Sunday... My heart was racing and my hands got all sweaty... I was so overcome by fear that I just couldn't do it. And not long after, I watched someone else go to that person and I'm sure they were told all that God wanted them to hear. Mordecai was right when he said that deliverance for the Jews would arise from a different place but Esther would have missed out on her destiny.

So I urge you .... Choose courage, God is with you.