There are many memes doing the rounds on social media illustrating 2020 as the year of the apocalypse because of the Coronavirus pandemic and other events. Netizens are expressing what a terrible time it is to live in. But hey! God has plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future! Infact, God created you and positioned you on earth for such a time as this!
The Bible is full of underdog heroes rising to the occasion — David kills the giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17); a whimpering Gideon led the Israelites against the Midianites and won (Judges 6-8); Daniel survives in the lion’s den (Daniel 1-12); and many more.
We also have the nail-biting epic story of Esther. An exile and an orphan, Esther gets chosen as queen in a foreign land. We can almost hear dramatic drumrolls play as we read the portion (Esther 4) where she nervously wonders what she could do to save her people, the Jews, from Haman. This is when Mordecai, her guardian, sends her a message “...maybe you were made queen FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS.” Talk about a life-defining moment! The story goes on to describe how an emboldened Esther swings into action to help save the Jews from genocide. Esther literally made history when she understood her position and stepped up to fulfill her calling.
If 2020 is coming hard on you, or you are in a situation that looks overwhelmed by hopelessness, know that God has a purpose for you and has given you everything you need to have power over your circumstances. Like any Marvel, DC or Bible hero story, God will bring you your life-defining moment, to realise your role in the grand story.
“You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. God made you for a reason, he also decided when you would be born. There is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning!” — Rick Warren, Pastor and Author.
You are not small or insignificant to God’s story, “His-story”! Whatever God stirs in your heart to do, whatever dream He has given you, we pray that you will courageously rise to the occasion through faith and obedience ‘for such a time as this’.