THE ‘‘Point of No Return’’ is when you are so committed to a course of action you have no choice but to continue. You might have experienced it if on a motorway when, just too late, you realise the junction you’re driving past is the one that you needed to take. And that means, unless you break multiple traffic laws or risk causing a serious accident, you have no choice but to carry on.

I think most of us have faced our own ‘‘Point of No Return’’ moments in life. A decision that you need to make, or a conversation that you have to initiate, or a situation you need to resolve, or a problem that needs to be fixed. Something where you know what the right thing to do is but you don’t know how others will respond to it until you’ve gone past the ‘Point of No Return’ and it is too late to change. Therefore the easiest course of action is to do nothing, because you won’t run the risk of upsetting people. But not making that decision means things don’t change, which you know will be worse in the long run.

At All Saints we are in the middle of a sermon series in the Old Testament book of Esther. She was a Jewish girl who had unexpectedly become the Queen of Persia. But the Jewish people were facing the prospect of total annihilation because of the hatred of an influential and evil individual (where have we heard that before?). Esther was the only hope for her people because only the King could change what was about to happen, and only Esther had the opportunity to speak to him about it. However Persian law said that anyone approaching the King uninvited, even the Queen, would face execution unless the King pardoned them (and this Persian King had previous form on mistreating his wives!) That meant that Esther would only know if she would live or die after she had gone past the ‘Point of No Return’ and entered the King’s presence. Unsurprisingly she was reticent until her uncle said the following to her in Esther 4:14

“Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

It was then Esther realised that God had been at work in the background in her circumstances to put her where she was, so she could do what only she could do.

Esther’s situation is one we all encounter in our lives. What do you do when you face a crucial ‘Point of No Return’ decision? One strategy is to do what Esther did when she asked for the prayerful support of her people to seek God’s help and guidance as she faced what lay ahead.

I won’t spoil the ending for you (you’ll have to read the Bible to find out what happened) but what Esther found as she stepped past her ‘Point of No Return’’ is something I believe we can find as well. That God goes before us and that He always has the last word. And that means whatever your fears and worries might be about what lies behind your ‘Point of No Return’, if you ask for and trust in God’s wisdom and guidance, you won’t be let down.