3 Dynamic Ways Esther Teaches Us About Surrender

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Have you ever looked at your life and thought to yourself, “This isn’t what I imagined my life would be”? I know I have thought this several times.

My life looks nothing like what I planned, but I’ve learned that when I surrender to God’s hand, it can look better than what I imagined.

The life of Esther teaches us about surrender and how, when we continually surrender to God’s hand, He can make us into more than we can imagine or think.

Several years ago, while out on a fun excursion with my sister and her family, my nephews and nieces got to try their hand at pottery.  

The wet clay spinning around and covering their hands seemed so picturesque to me – and as I tried to capture some beautiful shots, this verse came to mind.  

But now, O LORD, You [are] our Father; We [are] the clay, and You our potter; And all we [are] the work of Your hand” – Isaiah 64:8

It took on a whole new meaning for me, watching the sweet creations they were making. The care, the craftsmanship, the effort – all that goes into one piece of pottery.  

And when we think of how much time and care God has put into us – and continues to put into us – how can we not know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He truly loves us!

3 Dynamic Ways Esther Teaches Us About Surrender

She was not an average girl; she was an orphan. It seemed that loss defined her. Loss of parents – loss of homeland. She was a foreigner, and her people were not very well accepted.

She may not have been average, but there was nothing significant about her at all. Just a girl who with no parents and no home.

Invisible.

And yet through a series of unusual circumstances, God chose her and her uncle to shape a nation.

This Jewish orphan became queen of Persia, thwarted a plan to annihilate her people, and saved the Jewish people.

Risking her own life in the process, she – an invisible girl – dared to approach the king, not once but twice, in an effort to rescue her people from perishing. She dared to expose the king’s right-hand man – a man he trusted with his life.

Imagine what it must have been like for Esther.

She – a slave – married and became queen to the very man who enslaved her people and threatened to annihilate them.

I imagine that she not only did not want to marry such a man, but it must have felt like a betrayal of her own people.

And yet she did not have a choice.

She was forced to marry this king.

And her uncle uttered the famous words: “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.”

God was moulding her. Shaping her. Preparing her for the role she would play in rescuing her people from destruction.

A simple girl. Invisible – she became visible – and her name rings down through the annals of time.

Esther teaches us about surrender in three ways that encourage us, as we look at where we are compared to where we thought we’d be.

1. God Shapes Us Through Uncomfortable Seasons

None of us enjoys being uncomfortable, and yet God will use uncomfortable, and even painful, seasons in our lives to shape us into the person He designed us to be.

Have you ever watched a potter make a vessel?

• They squeeze it
• They pinch it
• Sometimes they even have to rip it off the wheel and start over

God will use life’s circumstances to squeeze and pinch us because He is shaping us into a vessel He can use for His kingdom.

I am sure Esther felt squeezed and shaped, being ripped from everything that felt familiar and normal, to live in a palace where she likely felt out of place and incompetent.

2. God Removes What Doesn’t Belong

When a potter is making a vessel, he will often trim off clay that doesn’t belong or that will make the vessel look unattractive.

There are things in our lives that may not be bad…

They may be good, but they are not the best, and those good things are distracting us from fulfilling the best things God has for us.

He wants to trim them off, so that His best in our life shines through.

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:2

It may feel that God is being cruel and unfair, but in reality, He is just trimming back the unnecessary things in our lives so we can accomplish His will.

Esther, behind the walls of the palace, no longer lived the life she was used to living.

She didn’t have the friends she’d used to have. Everything was new and unfamiliar to her, but God had to remove those things from her life that would distract her from fulfilling the call God had ordained for her life.

Imagine how history would be different today if she had not surrendered to God’s divine hands!

3. God Puts Us in Places We Don’t Expect

A pot doesn’t get to say where it will end up or how it will be used.

“Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” Romans 9:21

Esther didn’t have a say over whether or not she would be queen. In Esther 2:3, we read that the eligible virgins were gathered and brought under the custody of one of the king’s servants.

They were not invited; they were gathered. They had no choice.

Esther was not given an opportunity to be queen; she was simply made queen by the king’s orders and desire.

There are times when God will arrange circumstances and situations we’d never choose that move us to places we didn’t expect, and perhaps didn’t even want, in order to fulfil His plan and purpose for our lives.

My life is an example of the Potter’s Hands

I’ll admit, I never wanted to be a missionary.

God called me to be a missionary in 1999, during my summer semester in Bible school, and it made me angry.

Why would God call me to the only ministry I didn’t want to do?!?

I chose to reject that call and dove headfirst into a rebellion that lasted two long years.

After I came back to the Lord, it would be another three years before I felt Him, once again, call me to the mission field.

But He wasn’t done squeezing and pinching me yet.

My early years on the mission field squeezed and pinched me more than I ever imagined, and over the past 21 years in Croatia, I’ve continually felt squeezed and pinched.

My life looks nothing at all like I’d planned or imagined, but God has used me in ways I never dreamed possible.

How to stay pliable when God squeezes and pinches your life:

Do you find yourself in circumstances not of your own choosing?

So often the hand of God ordains circumstances we find distasteful because He is preparing us for a greater purpose we don’t yet see.

When Esther became queen, she did not know that the heart of Haman was devising a plan to cleanse Persia of the Jewish people.

Just as clay must surrender to the hand of the potter, so we must surrender to the strong and sure hand of God, who has a purpose for our life, a vision for our life, a plan that we have yet to see and experience.

And just as that lump of clay doesn’t yet closely resemble the finished product, so He is not yet finished with you.

Here are five ways you can stay pliable in the hands of the Potter.

• Spend time in Scripture, even in the chaos of life
• Yield your plans to God daily – Proverbs 3:5-6
• Trust God’s timing in your life
• Ask the Lord, “What are You shaping in me right now?”, not “Why did You allow this?” What, not why.
• Stay accountable to the Christian community God has given you through your local church.

In conclusion

Where do you sense God shaping you right now?

What part of your life feels squeezed and pinched?

Are you resisting the Potter’s hands—or resting in them?

If you are struggling to rest in God’s hands, I’d like to offer you these 5 Bible verses that will help build your faith and trust in God’s purposes for your life.

Just click here or on the image below to receive and download them.

You can print them off, laminate them if you like, cut them into cards, and take them with you to help you continually meditate on God’s goodness in your life.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use these Bible verse cards, click here: 5 Bible Verses to Build Your Faith