In this episode of Pray the Word on Esther 5:11, David Platt encourages Christians to ask God to help deliver them from pride.
“And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king.”
-Esther 5:11
Oh, want a picture of the pride of man, and the possession of things and the prosperity of this world. Here’s Haman talking about all the splendor of his riches, all the promotions that he’s received from the king. How he’s been advanced in this way or that way. And you read this and it wreaks of pride in a way that I hope leads all of us to evaluate our own hearts, and to ask, “To what extent are we living for the splendor, for the acclaim of this world?” For more possessions, for more prosperity in this world. We’ve been called to live for much higher things than this.
Esther 5:11 Helps Us Fix Our Eyes on God
“Let him who boasts,” Jeremiah 9 says, “boast not in his wealth and his riches and his might, his power, fame. No, let him who boast, boast that he knows me, that he understands me, says the Lord.” Is that what you’re living for today? Is that what’s driving you today? Just to know God. That he would be your only boast, is what Paul says in Galatians 6, right? “My only boast is in the cross of Jesus, to which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” I’m not living for this world. I’m living to know and walk with Jesus. I’m living to know and walk with God.
Praying that God Would Help Us Live for Him
Oh God, please help us never to live for the splendor and acclaim and applause of this world. God, help us to fix our eyes on you, on knowing you, on pursuing you, on enjoying you, on understanding you, and loving you. May that be our boast today, and tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. God, may this be the driving passion of our lives. To know and understand and walk faithfully with you.
Praying that God Would Deliver Us from Pride
Please, may it be so. In me, please, may it be so. And all those who are listening right now. God, we pray that you would deliver us, save us, cleanse us from all pride. We pray for humility in our lives, that joyfully is content in knowing you. And knowing you and loving you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God may it be so, in each of our lives, we pray in Jesus’ name, according to this picture of pride in Esther 5:11. Amen.
View the 2022 McLean Bible Church Reading Plan.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
