God's hand of providence and protection on behalf of His people is evident throughout the Book of Esther, although His name does not appear once in the text. The enemy's plot to bring grave danger to God's people is confounded by Esther's courage and her submissive willingness to receive counsel.

In chapter two of this exciting story, we see a picture of Esther's grooming process before she was to go in to the king. We also see one of the main reasons she was so pleasing to him and how that favor put her in position to save her own people.

Each young woman chosen to appear before the king had to go through a 12-month preparation period. Then, each would be given whatever she desired from the women's quarters to take with her when she went in to the king. The word "desired" can also be translated as "speak or said." In other words, each young woman could have whatever she said (or desired).

The thing that set Esther apart from the others was the fact that she said nothing except what her counselor told her to say. This is so important to us as women because of the well-known fact that we "carry" more words than men do. With death and life in the power of the tongue, how very responsible we need to be with the words we speak.

Like Esther, I want to please my King, Jesus. Therefore, I need to pay attention to my counselor (the Holy Spirit) and say, and make request for only the things He counsels. I want to have Esther's queenly grace, don't you?

Meditation Scripture: Esther 2:5-20