MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT

Esther 4:14 “…you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this.”

Have you ever heard a moment or decision called a “make or break moment”? Have you ever been confronted with a choice that you believed was a “make or break” decision? If so, you surely can remember the intense feelings and emotions that were stirring within you during that time period. Perhaps were you nervous, maybe even afraid to choose. Yet, the choice was inevitable. It would determine a certain course to your life. I don’t know how many of those moments actually occur in a person’s life. I am thankful, though, that they do not come up too often.

Many decisions are just casual thoughts. Do I want the blue car or the red car? Do I want the early shift or the late shift? What do I want for dinner – chicken or steak? Those simple choices only impact a short period of life. But how about these - How many children should we have? Should I go back to school? Should I choose more money or more flexibility at work? Those decisions are very impactful to our futures and the results of the decisions do not quickly go away.

When it comes to our spiritual walk and the lives we live for God, we will face some of those big decisions as well. We will have a make or break moment. I recently felt that I was facing that type of decision. I had reached a fork in the road, so to speak, in my career. I had achieved as much as I possibly could in the position I was in and it was seemingly my turn for the big promotion, the big raise, and the big sense of accomplishment. This was a no brainer, right? Well…there was a flip side (isn’t there always a flip side). With the promotion, would be more headaches, less family time, and little personal flexibility. If I choose the increased salary and higher position, I would be letting go of many of my personal goals in ministry. If I tried to do both (as I had before) I feared I would crash and burn.

I felt an intense sense of gravity with this decision. I felt as if this was a definitive moment. I felt as though I was faced with a make or break decision that would set the course for many things to come. After much deliberation and prayer, I choose to stay put. My family, my church, and my ministry had to come first. It was like God was saying, “Now is the time to choose. Who are you, really?”

Esther was faced with a decision that would impact an entire nation of people. Without retelling the whole story, Esther has become queen to the king of Persia. No one knows that she is a Jew. The king is manipulated into making a decree that would exterminate all the Jews living in Persia. She now must decide whether to identify herself as a Jew by approaching the king without permission. By the way, approaching the king without permission could get her killed.

What does Esther do at this decisive moment? She stops denying, stops ignoring, stops making excuses, stops running away. She realizes this needs more than her own strength, so she falls back on the devotional habits of her people and calls on the Jews to fast with her. She resolves that she will face up to her responsibility and go in to the king. She recognizes that what she must do must include disclosing her true identity as a Jew. She takes stock of the realities of her situation and says simply, “If I perish, I perish.” She goes to the heart of the empire to save the Jewish people. Esther does save her people. She does so because she is stirred to an act of extraordinary fortitude.

The plans that God has for each of us are extraordinary. He orders the steps of our lives. When you find yourself facing a make or break moment, what will you do? Will you run from God’s plan, choose the easy route? Or will you step up, knowing that God has your moment prepared.

The heart of the story lies in these echoing words, words which I hope make your stomach tighten and your breath falter just as much as if Mordecai were saying them to you today. “Perhaps you have come to this place, to this moment, to these people, to this challenge, for just such a time as this.”
Will you listen? Will you do what Esther did, realize the reality of your situation, seek all the help you need, plan carefully, fast, and put yourself in the hands of God? Has God put you right here, right now, for just such a time as this?