First Person: ‘For such a time as this’

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

This is a well know Bible verse among Christians that today I want to apply to Arizona Southern Baptists.

According to Peter we are: “… a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We need to focus around our world today and see tragedy happening, the pain and sorrow running free in our streets, the hopelessness that lives in our marketplaces, the violence that comes in and out of our schools. This is that “such at time as this” to remind every Christian what God wants to make us: a chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation. God’s plan is to put us in positions of influence for a purpose.

And that purpose is “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness.” Today more than ever, our lives as disciples of Jesus, Christians, Jesus followers, Jesus apprentices need to show the holiness that gives us the authority to call this world to faith in the only one who can fill the emptiness of the human heart with peace and hope, the only one who can heal the human heart of resentment and hate, the only one who can bring calm and quietness to the violent mind and soul.

To do that, we need to speak with Him more, not to him assuming he will listen to our list of petitions, but with Him, experiencing that He listens and answers to our voice. He brings strength and consolation that we can share with our world and remind them of the message of real love He showed on the cross for this ill world. I am talking about prayer like the old song tells us about: “He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing; and the melody that He gave to me within my heart is ringing.”

Let’s increase our holiness by speaking with Him in every opportunity we have in such a way that our energy will be transformed in witnessing of Him, in sharing how He made us pass from darkness to His amazing light. And the song ends saying: “And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

Fernando Amaro is pastor of Iglesia Bautista Resurreccion and president of the Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists.