The Christian Youth: This season look back and remember

I PRAY you are well today and you had a great week.
Exam season is still in full swing. Our prayers are with you. As we enter into the festive season let us all remember the main reason for the season.
I know many people are busy planning ahead to have a good time and that is good. But the main reason for the season is to remember how God gave His only Son to save the world. It is a season to give and be a blessing to someone.
I know some will say “I have no money”. However, giving is not only expressed in monetary terms.
You can give clothing that you no longer wear to the less-privileged. You can give your time to help, for example, at an old people’s home or shelter. You can choose to be more gracious. Let go of past hurts and failures, smile more and choose to make someone’s day better.
Try it, you will have fulfilled the true meaning of Christmas.
This week I would like to draw your attention to how sometimes we tend to forget just how good God has been, or maybe even forget where we have come from.
This can hinder us from fulfilling our destiny and when we do not do what we are supposed to do due to oversight or a lack of understanding it can actually have severe effects on others. Let me paint a small picture for you by making use of a biblical example.
There was a young girl whose parents passed away. She lived as an orphan with her cousin who was much older and had assumed the role of a father to her.
They were living as slaves in Babylon (the great capital of the world at the time). It so happened that the king was looking for a new queen and lo and behold after a tough screening exercise she was chosen to be the next Queen of Babylon.
Imagine how her life changed!
I am pretty sure it was a hectic time for her. I mean she was in training for a minimum of one-and-a-half years. There was competition with her fellow colleagues to get attention from the grooms men as to how to become the number one and hence be chosen as the next queen.
There were probably rivalries and factions among the girls. Then she had to be presented before the king and by the hand of God she was chosen.
When she became queen I would like to believe that it was a totally new world to her. She had to learn the etiquette, there were official duties and functions. She must have been very busy.
This is similar to many young people today.
We get so busy in the hustle and bustle of life. Some of you are busy with exams and when you are done you will be catching up on the latest movies and what has been happening on the social scene.
Some of you recently graduated and are busy sending out job applications and going for interviews or applying for visas to go abroad.
Others are busy with work commitments and pursuing career goals. Some are launching out into new projects, whilst others are getting into relationships or planning marriages.
We have highs and lows, arguments and challenges, victories and breakthroughs. Everyday something new is coming up and before you know it the year is over.
The young lady I mentioned earlier is called Esther, she could relate to what I have just said. The hustle and bustle of life, and the highs and lows that come with new experiences of life.
I believe God sometimes lets you continue in that mode for a while, and then events cause you to step back and take stock.
In the case of Esther an evil man named Haman sought to destroy all of the Jews. Esther was a Jew, but she had not revealed her identity to anyone.
So the massacre could have gone ahead without affecting her at all.
However, she had a father figure who knocked some sense into her head. Mordecai, her cousin, brought her back to her senses.
Esther 4:13-14 says, “Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.
“For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
These words jolted Esther into action and her people were saved.
Sometimes we get so busy in our own little worlds that we fail to see the bigger picture and our part in this great jigsaw puzzle of life.
Take a step back, perchance all you have gone through was to prepare you for greatness.
You are not alive by chance, you are here by design. Do not be frivolous with your life and lose yourself on petty issues. Get a Mordecai in your life who can advise you well and help you along to see the bigger picture.
Do not just live for you alone, live for something that is bigger than you.
That is all for now, till next week. God bless.