The Prayer of Surrender: From Esther’s Plea to Our Father’s Goodness

Voice over by Christine Cherry Moe

Esth 12, 14-16, 23-25, Psalm: 137, Mt 7:7-12

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

In the face of overwhelming danger, injustice, or personal desperation, the human heart can do one of two things: it can tighten in fear and attempt to control, or it can open in trust and surrender to God. Today’s readings give us a stunning portrait of this surrender—the kind of prayer that does not seek to manipulate God, but places our entire situation into His loving hands, trusting in His goodness above all.

From the Book of Esther, we hear the desperate prayer of Queen Esther as she prepares to risk her life by approaching the king to save her people. She does not pray from a place of power, but of total vulnerability. “Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,” she cries. She acknowledges that God alone knows our need and is the master of all things. Her prayer is one of radical dependence: “Save us by your power, and help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O Lord.” She places her entire cause—her very life—into God’s hands, trusting Him with the outcome. This is the prayer of surrendered faith.

This posture of trusting surrender finds its ultimate affirmation in the words of Jesus in the Gospel. He teaches us with breathtaking simplicity: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” But the heart of this teaching is not a guarantee of every specific thing we request; it is a revelation about the character of God. Jesus argues from human logic: “Which one of you would hand your son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread?” If we, who are flawed, know how to give good gifts, “how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?”

The connection is profound. Esther, in her peril, did not know how God would save her, but she trusted that He was good and that He heard her. Jesus reveals that we can have even greater confidence. We pray not to a distant monarch, but to our heavenly Father, whose very nature is to give good things to His children. The “good thing” He gives most perfectly is the Holy Spirit (Lk 11:13), who enables us to endure, to discern, and to align our will with His.

For us, this means transforming our prayer from a list of demands into a posture of surrendered trust, like Esther’s. We bring our real needs—for healing, for provision, for justice—and we place them before our Father, saying, “I have no help but you.” Then, we trust that He will answer with what is truly good, even if it is not what we expected.

When we pray the Our Father, we pray with this spirit: “Thy will be done.” Let us pray with Esther’s bold vulnerability and with the childlike trust Jesus commands. For our Father sees, He knows, and He will answer with the perfect gift of Himself. Amen.

May God bless you all!