Esther 4:17 / Matthew 7:7-12
Now and then we have been told to count our blessings. Yet it also takes a lot of faith to count our blessings and give thanks to God.
For the many blessings that we take for granted, that we have not asked for, that we don't have to search and keep knocking on doors, we really have to sit down and count them.
Indeed, as Jesus said, God our Father gives good things to those who ask Him. And He even gives good things to those who don't even ask Him!
Yet for those of us who had to desperately beg and plead with God for help, then we will understand what Esther went through.
We heard in the 1st reading that Esther took refuge with the Lord in the mortal peril which had overtaken her.
She besought the Lord God not just for her life but for her people who were faced with imminent annihilation by their enemy.
There is one phrase in her prayer that was like knocking hard in the door of the Lord, i.e. "Remember Lord; reveal yourself in the time of our distress."
If we read on the story of Esther, then we will see that the Lord came to her help and save her people from the wickedness of the enemy.
The Bible is full of blessings, and the greater the distress, the greater were the blessings.
But let us begin with counting our blessings. So that when we are in distress, we will count on the Lord.