Lesson 20: The winner’s reward

Read Esther 3

Esther and all the other young women who had been brought to the palace prepared themselves to be judged by the king. This meant they were given the best foods and many other things they might not have had in their own homes. They were also taught how to dress well and use the best ways of making themselves look attractive. They learned how to walk and talk like a queen would. This was their life for a year. The Bible says the official in charge of the women was so pleased with Esther that he gave her seven maids, other young women of the palace, to help her.

Then the day came for them to appear before the king. Each young woman was taken to the king with anything she wanted to take with her. When Esther’s turn came, she asked the official to advise her what she should take. She asked him because she knew he had far more experience with the king than she did, and he could give her the best advice. The Bible does not say what she took, but whatever it was, the king fell in love with her and made her his queen. She was then given a great feast and introduced to the king’s officials and servants as the new queen. Since the king also gave generous gifts to all the people in her honor, she was also loved by the people.


Sometimes we face challenges and situations we think we know how to handle ourselves; but Jesus wants us to ask Him to handle the challenges and situations through us instead. Jesus wants to be our Savior for ALL of our lives; not just for the things we think we cannot handle by ourselves. He wants to bring glory and honor to Himself through every one of our daily tasks – all the tasks we have studied at school to learn, all the things we have learned through experience.

Peter and the other disciples learned this lesson one day. Peter, and a few others of the disciples, had been fishermen for many years before Jesus called them to be His followers. Peter knew how to fish! This night, they had gone fishing and caught nothing after a whole night’s work. In the morning, when they were returning to shore, Jesus told Peter to fish in a different way than he had ever done before – and they caught so many fish they could hardly take them all into the boat (read the story in John 21:4-8).

Jesus wants to surprise you too. He can take the things you know how to do and make them into glory for Himself. He makes great things out of ordinary tasks if we allow Him to work through us.

*Challenge: Do something for someone else today, but ask Jesus to do it through you for His glory. What happened?