One of my favorite scriptural examples of someone who prevailed under pressure is a young woman named Esther. She found herself in one of the most stressful and dangerous situations in history. If anybody ever had good reason to worry, Esther did.
At 18 years old, she was called upon to risk her own life to save her people from annihilation. She bore the burden of knowing that the lives of millions would be spared—or lost—as a result of her actions.
Talk about pressure! Esther could be the poster child.
If you’ve read her story, you know that, at first, Esther responded the way most of us would. She tried to argue her way out of the situation. She told her cousin, Mordecai, who wanted her to use her recently acquired status of queen to petition the king to stop the slaughter of the Jews, that she simply couldn’t do it.
After all, the king had already disposed of one queen. (That’s how Esther ended up with the position.) And according to the law, anyone who went to the king’s court uninvited would be put to death. “I have not been called to come to the king for 30 days,” explained Esther.
Instead of sympathizing, however, Mordecai rebuked her. “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish,” he said. “And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14 Amp).
Faced with such a dilemma, Esther could have totally fallen apart. She could have been seized with anxiety and rushed blindly into the king’s court wailing with hysteria. She could have pitched a fit.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she sent word to Mordecai saying, “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me for three days. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (v. 16 Amp).
Notice, Esther didn’t just run around talking to people about the trouble she was facing. Her conversation wasn’t just horizontal. It was vertical. She talked to God (and asked others to talk to Him too). She lifted the situation to Him and asked Him for help.
That sounds so simple—and it is—yet how often we neglect to do it. Many times, we try to handle our troubles by ourselves or complain about them to friends and family members who can do little to help us. How quick we are to yield to anxiety and cry out to everyone but our faithful, loving, all-powerful God.
Scripture Reading: Esther 3:7–15; 4:1–17
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”