YOU CAN CHOOSE TO LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH PURPOSE

“Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.  Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.”—Proverbs 4:26-27

 

You do not have to live each day as a reactionary—that is someone who only reacts to situations or circumstances.  You can choose your steps.  You can choose to turn away from evil.  You can choose to make good decisions, and how your day will be invested.  You can choose what you will accomplish and what you will cause to be a better by the end of your day because of your choices.    

 

Although Esther was a young Jewish woman, she had to make a choice to live her life with purpose or to standby and die with her people.

 

 Esther was selected by the Persian King Ahasuerus to be his wife. He had banished his former wife and chose Esther through a contest. However, the king did not know she was a Jew. (Esther 1-2)

 

Esther’s uncle was Mordecai.  Mordecai learned of a plot to kill the king and made it known to Esther.  (Esther 2)

 

One of the princes in the kingdom was Haman. Mordecai and Haman had a mutual disdain for one another.  Haman devised a plan to eliminate Mordecai.  He told the king that there was a people group in the kingdom that had their own laws and customs. If they were allowed to continue they might overthrow the power of the king.  Therefore Haman convinced the king that this group should be killed.  What Haman and the king did not know at the time, he was asking the king for permission to kill the new Queen Esther. (Esther 3)

 

The law was created that allowed the Jews to be murdered.  When Mordecai learned of the new law he spoke with Esther about asking the king to reconsider. She was loved by the king, but she did not have the authority to enter into the king’s chambers and talk with him at any time she pleased.  Mordecai told her that God had allowed her to become the queen to help protect her people.  Though conflicted with the thought of perishing by the hand of the king or by the new law in place, she determined to let the king know she was a Jew and that his new law would require that she be killed. (Esther 4)

 

She told the king that there was a plot to destroy her and her people. The king was angry and asked who was behind the wickedness. When she pointed to Haman the king was furious. He went outside to think.  Haman was arguing with Esther, supposedly not knowing she was a Jew. He was begging for his life because the king had already said the person behind the plot would be hanged.  Haman got animated and excited.  He fell onto Esther’s bed. When King Ahasuerus came back from the garden he saw Haman on his wife’s bed and grew even more angered at the thought that Haman was trying now to persuade his wife sexually. (Esther 7)  Haman was hanged that day on the gallows he intended for Mordacai. (Esther 7)

 

Esther made one more request to the king. That was that the law be reversed which would have destroyed the Jews. The law was rewritten to save the Jews and destroy the family of Haman. (Esther 8)

 

Just like Esther you can choose your steps.  You can choose to turn away from evil.  You can choose to make good decisions. 

 

Everyday is a gift from God and a treasure.  It is an opportunity that you will never have again.  Choose not to let your day be frittered away with no purpose, no plan, no goals, and no achievements. 

 

God made you to have a sense of completion, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6), a sense of contribution.  I encourage you to choose to live your life in such a way that at the end of the day you will know that your world is a better place because you were in it.

 

So choose decide, do not be easily influenced from one thing to the next so that you do not accomplish anything in your day.  You can live your life with purpose—with intention.  And when you do you will have a sense of great achievement, and everything in your life will be better.

 

Father—I thank You for the day that You have given to me.  Thank You that each day is a New Day for me.  I ask You to forgive me for making wrong choices and flittering away my days.  Today I purpose to make my day count for You, in Jesus Name. Amen.