STAND YOUR GROUND

Marcella Ward    July 20, 2022

Esther 4:13-14
Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (NLT)

Esther 4:16
“Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” (NLT)

Daniel 3:16-18

 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  (NIV)

Daniel 6:6-12

 So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever!  The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den.  Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” So King Darius put the decree in writing.

 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.  Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”  (NIV)

 

 

I Samuel 17:45-47

 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.  All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

 Esther, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel and David all had one thing in common.  They all stood their ground even if it meant death.  How many of us are willing to stand our ground?  Maybe it won’t be as heroic as these and many others who have gone before us.  Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Corrie ten Boom and many others who risked reputation and lives were not afraid to take a stand. 

We are in a time in history when we need to stand against evil in the world and not give in to those in power coming after our God-given identity; our freedoms; our rights given to us by God in the Constitution of the United States.  There are more of us than there are of them.  We need to take a stand, not only for our children and grandchildren but Almighty God who created us in His own image and gave us one of the most important gifts----free choice.  We are not to bow down to the demonic system that is trying to take away our identity and make us slaves.  We are to take a stand with God to be willing to be the Kingdom of God that we were created for.  We are the ones who have dominion over the earth because we were given that in the Garden of Eden.  We are at a crossroads.  We are at a tipping point and if we do not take a stand now, we will allow evil to keep chipping away at our God-given freedoms.

STAND YOUR GROUND!

Marcella Ward     Author of “Stolen Identity: Plan of the Evil One”      July 20, 2022