Is God Present

Did you know that the book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where the name of God does not appear? It is. But at the same time, His presence is obvious with each turn of events. In fact, I had to rethink the first statement while I was teaching the children one morning as they wanted me to read the story of Esther to them. There are places where His presence is so obvious that in paraphrasing, it would be easy to insert His name into the text.

When I think about this, I am encouraged to think of my own life and the fact that there are days I don't so much as utter the name "Jesus," and yet I know He's been at work in my life. Then there are other times that it's so obvious that I wonder why I didn't say His name. One example of that was that yesterday I found out when I tried to withdraw funds from the ATM to pay for bowling that one of my checks had posted to my account twice, leaving insufficient funds to pull out money. I was frustrated, but there was an inner calm that said "This is not going to ruin your day." I didn't have to fight against the usual thoughts of "Great, is this how my day is going to go?" Rather, I just accepted that my day was not ruined, and in fact I bowled a 125, which doesn't sound all that much to avid bowlers, but for someone with a 70avg. this is great.

My encouragement to you today is to start thinking of how God is at work in your life. He is there, and whether or not you acknowledge Him, He is working. Let's give Him the glory today of our praise as we search out what He's called us to. "Who know but that we weren't called out for such a time as this."