Day 3
Memory Verse – Isaiah 35:10 And those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Read Esther 8
What a beautiful end to the story of Esther, Queen of Persia. If you haven’t read the story in its entirety, consider reading the whole book. Suffice it to say, Esther, Mordecai, and all of the Jews in Persia were headed toward annihilation when God through Esther saved His people. And not only did they receive salvation, they received honor and many possessions. And the response of the people? They began to rejoice, and feast, and celebrate! Of course they did. This is a natural response to the recognition that things could have been really bad, and instead God turned it around for good.
And you know what? We have been saved from so much! Esther and her people were saved from the evil Haman who tried to take their natural lives on earth. WE have been saved by an even more evil devil who wants to take our eternity in the presence of God. if we walked in the knowledge of this salvation daily, we would rejoice and feast and celebrate daily!
King David was a man whom God had saved over and over and over. He had been saved from a lion and a bear, from Goliath and from Saul and countless others. But he forgot his salvation. And he messed up. When he came to himself and repented of his sins, he wrote Psalm 51.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
David returned to the joy of his salvation – and recognized he had been saved from himself and his wrong desires. God is faithful and restored joy to David!