ESTHER 4:16 : “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor
drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which
is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
General Charles Gordon served the British military conscientiously for many years in China. When
the English government sought to reward him for his service, he declined all monetary remuneration
but accepted a gold medal on which were inscribed his name and a record of his 31 engagements.
At his death, the medal was missing. Later it was learned that during a famine in Manchester, he
donated it to be melted and used to buy bread for the poor. In his diary that day he wrote these
words “The last and only thing that I had in this world that I valued, I have given over to the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
Esther, too, knew what it meant to give everything over to God even her life. If being faithful to His
calling meant she had to perish, she was willing.
There was nothing that she would withhold from God’s service. Life itself was less precious than the
need to obey His will.
Others have followed in these same footsteps. Some had their lives spared, but others were killed.
The writer of Hebrews says, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain
with the sword.
They wandered about in sheep­ skins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom
the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:37-38).
Giving your all to Jesus doesn’t make you a martyr; it makes you a faithful disciple.
Are you willing to give yourself and everything you possess to Jesus? Can you say with the hymn
writer, “All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give”? If you can trust Him with your eternal soul,
can you not trust Him with everything else you have, even your life?
WE CAN’T GIVE OUR ALL TO JESUS AND KEEP SOME FOR OURSELVES.