Called To Action: A Study On Moving As You Follow God

Esther 4:14 NASB

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

A Call To Act

This study is not about the part of this verse we’re all so familiar with, “for such a time as this,” though that’s one of my favorite verses to dig deeper into. This is not even a study on Esther. This is a call to action for all my sisters in Christ.

Many of us want so badly to follow the Father. We read the Bible. We pray. We go to small group Bible studies and serve in our churches. I do these things as well.

Let’s face it, many of the faith-related things we do benefit us. Please don’t get the wrong idea when I say this. We read the Bible to discover what the Lord is saying in His great love letter TO US. Many people often fill their prayers with cries of help for themselves and those they love, clearly asking God to help them and TO HELP US. Both things are encouraged in the Word and are in no way wrong, just as Bible studies and serving aren’t. Please do NOT think I am trying to deter you from doing any of these things. Stay with me here. I promise I have a point.

In some of my recent Bible journaling projects, I studied a few verses that screamed out at me. God told me He was pleased with all those things I mentioned before. But what he also wants me to do is pick up my mat and walk.

John 5:8 NIV

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

And at that very moment, I’m just guessing here since I was alone, but someone just might have witnessed a lightbulb hovering above my head.

Move!

My realization hit me in the face! I was not MOVING. I was not ACTING for the Lord. Though reading and studying the Bible were pleasing to God, time and time again the Bible explains how He called those who followed him TO ACT.

You may not find God mentioned anywhere in the Book of Esther, but I have no doubt He was there, and Esther was being led by Him. Esther had to MOVE. She had to ACT. The scriptures tell us, if she did nothing, the Jews would’ve still been saved. But it was this call to action, where she truly followed God.

Picking Up My Mat

It was John 5:8 that I heard loud and clear. “Pick up your mat and walk.” It wasn’t prayers or studies that saved the invalid in John 5. It was his willingness to act when Jesus called him to. His healing came when he physically stood and walked with his mat in hand. This is my realization! This is how we follow God!

In Exodus 34:1-4 NIV it is written

The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.”

Again, what I hear is the Lord calling Moses TO ACT. He says do this and Moses does. Moses follows God. He chiseled stones, which I imagine wasn’t easy, and climbed the mountain. That was it!

What I heard from the Father was to follow Him I needed to physically move and act. Of course, I still read the Bible daily, I pray, I study, and serve in my church home. Only now I realize to truly follow God requires a bit more. We’re being called to action and I know we can’t really follow God if we’re standing still.