We must seek out the truth, not expect it to reveal itself

Scripture Read: Esther 4:4-5  Then Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai that he might remove his sackcloth from him, but he did not accept them. ⁵ Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.  

Application: We read in Prov. 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. What a great truth is brought forth in a passage that we might just read and pass by as basic info about a story. In the day we live in – this little insight can really save us some grief. How many times do we in the Body of Christ react to what we think is true before we take the time to find out what the truth is?

Esther does not know why Mordecai will not accept the better clothes so that he can enter and tell her directly, but she does not just accept his no and go back to her life, she investigates. We should do the same. Sometimes we take what we see and even though it might not make sense to us we just accept it and go back to our life. I fear many times we miss real opportunity to minister when we do that. Someone has been absent from fellowship for a while, we ask how they are doing, they dismiss us with a quick “fine” so we go back to life. Perhaps if we had spent just a little more energy or time to ask “why”, or is there anything we can do, we might find a wounded person that did not know how to ask for help. The other aspect that is just as important is that today we get an email, or text message or hear a news report about something that is bad, like a book or a movie, and without checking it out for ourselves we jump in with the mob that is condemning or booing it. Many times we find out later the truth was not reported to us – now we look reactionary and ignorant – which the world loves to say Christians are. This is not good. We should take the time, as Esther did, to find out what the whole story is before we decide what we will do. Father, help us to seek the truth in the issues You bring into our lives so we can respond in a thoughtful, wise way, based on what the real truth is.

Meditation Questions: When you “hear about” something, how do you handle that? What do you do about it? Have you ever reacted to what you thought to be true only to find out you were wrong? What did you learn? How did you change? Have you ever pursued something and in time discovered the real truth? What did you learn? How did you change? We cannot control all the information that comes to us, but we can control - _________________  Fill in the blank. How many answers can you think of?