"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this." Esther 4:14

We all know the second part of this verse "for such a time as this." It is on t-shirts, coffee mugs and social media posts. We are here for such a time as this. God placed us here on earth at this specific time for a specific purpose. Just do a Google search "for such a time as this" and you will find numerous devotionals, sermons, and even fiction books. Scroll back a couple years, and there is even a devotional I wrote on how we are here for this time. God chose us to be alive now.

And while I believe that with all my heart, it is the first part of the verse that has stuck out to me lately. "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your family will perish." Go back and read that again. How many times have you and I skimmed over that part of the verse so we could get to the part where we were created "for such a time as this" ?

Esther may have been called to a royal position for this moment - to help save her people. This could be why she is right where she is. The question is, is she going to do anything about it, or is she just going to continue with life as normal?

Esther had a decision to make. She could stand up and do what she was created to do, or she could just leave things as they were and hope that the "but you and your family will perish" part wasn't really true.

What about us? We also have a decision to make.

Now more that ever, we know that we are here for a reason. We are alive at this exact moment in history for a purpose. God could have chosen for us to be on earth at any other time in history, but He chose NOW. 

So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to choose to stand up or continue on with life as normal and hope that the "but you and your family will perish" part is just an exaggeration?

What is that dream that you just can't seem to get rid of? That idea that won't go away? The pull that you feel to get involved? That desire may very well be from God. It may just be what you were created for.

God didn't put that dream or desire in your heart for no reason. It's time to stand up and not stay silent!