…and if I perish, I perish. Esther 4:16
My Precious Daughter,
That statement was made by a woman in the Bible named Esther. When life brought her to one of those impossible-to-ignore moments of truth that would ultimately impact not only her future, but also that of her entire generation. This was the incredible stance that she decided to make. Unintimidated, she dug her heels in and decided to face her enemy head on!
Did you know that the Lord anoints every woman with ‘Esther moments’? Times in your journey when a strength you never knew you had, suddenly wells up on the inside of you, causing you to stand up and defy every lying dart fired at you? But there is a catch: you have to decide not to settle for anything less than what the Lord promises you in His Word. You have to resolve within yourself that languishing away in some circumstantial dungeon somewhere, is simply not your portion in life.
Consider my own story for instance…
I was born into a world that prized sons as blessings from the gods, and daughters as bad omens from the underworld. Nine months of prayers, rituals and appeasement offerings to unseen deities, and all my parents had to show for it, was a pale, slightly jaundice, scraggly little girl ─ me.
Disappointment is a funny thing. Sometimes it’ll bring a frown to your face, but at other times it’ll bring a festering bitterness to your heart. My parents must have suffered one disappointment too many because by the time I came along, they didn’t have any smiles left in their hearts. I must have been the very embodiment of disappointment for them, because to my parents, my name somehow became synonymous with ugly.
I would often catch my mother scowling at me from across the room; and I would regularly overhear my father whispering curses at me when he thought I was too young to understand. You see princess, I never experienced the joy of a parent’s loving touch or affirming embrace when I was young. I was held at arm’s length for the best part of 20 years; rejected, dejected and ritualistically abused. I wasn’t the answer to their prayers…and I was going to pay for it.
When my ‘Esther moment’ came, it came as a whirlwind! I suddenly decided that I was no longer in the mood to be treated like a stain someone forgot to get rid of. I suddenly had this weird epiphany that I counted in this world. I counted to God, and I counted to my generation. It was then that I decided to break out of the domestic prison that I had been held in for two decades. I found the courage to say to myself:
…And if I perish, I perish. Esther 4:16
I left home and I bid an anointed GOODBYE to the prison wardens of my destiny. I knew it could cost me my life (it nearly did on numerous occasions), but my mind was already made up:
I WOULD BREAK FREE, OR I WOULD DIE TRYING!
Perhaps you too find yourself in a soul-crushing scenario at present. A set of circumstances that have you in a siege, ambushed and feeling attacked: no way forward and no way backwards. Perhaps as you have sat reading this letter, you have begun to catch glimmers of hope, and flickers of brighter days up ahead. But, you find yourself in an emotional quandary because life has sapped all the confidence out of you, leaving you like a castaway stranded on an island of broken dreams.
Well, as I near the end of this letter, I have a prayer burden for you. I am praying that every prison constructed around and against you will simply begin to crumble in this next season of your life. I pray that an Esther anointing would come upon you giving you the strength and courage to break free from every prison (whether intrinsic or extrinsic) that has ever held you captive in life. I have a Word for you. It’s one that you may need to think on over the next coming weeks:
We are like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
Psalms 124:7 AMP
Finally, Be Blessed, Be Bold…Be Free.
Love always
Mum x
Written by Raj Jarrett
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