Is the Battle Ours?

When Queen Esther discovered her husband planned to annihilate the Jews, her Uncle Mordecai begged her to plead with the king. She knew, though, that she could be killed if she went before the king uninvited. 

Her uncle's message was full of faith in God--not in Esther: "...if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place" (Esther 4:13,14). 

Perhaps the Jews' deliverance came more from her uncle's faith than from Esther's risk-taking. Mordecai was confident deliverance would come. God would provide deliverance even if Esther remained silent and failed to use her position to influence the king. I think the moment Mordecai believed God would deliver them, the miracle was on the way.

It is easy to think we are having faith in God, but then discover we want to pressure someone to do what we think will bring about God's will. We have faith in God's promises while praying and then proceed as though the battle were ours. When we're trusting God to be in control, we stop trying to work things out through human efforts. The situation may appear desperate and we may be tempted to feel we must do something, but we are doing the most we can do when we're waiting in faith. 

Dear Lord, help me be aware when I'm interfering with the work of the Spirit by trying to bring Your will to pass through human efforts. 

"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see" (Hebrews 11:1 NLT)."My soul, wait thou only upon the Lord; for my expectation is from him" (Ps. 62:5 KJV).