Remembering Answered Prayers

The campus ministry I'm a part of (Chi Alpha) has started this mega-saccharine community blog. This week we focused on various thanksgiving-themed posts and I had the pleasure of being able to contribute again. So here's a preview and a link to the original post on the site. And I'd encourage you to check back to it regularly because we've all got something important to share.

My small group just finished a three week study on Esther. It's a short book so I encourage you to go read it to get the full story but the basic gist of what happens is that Queen Esther saved her people (she is Jewish, by the way).

Y'know, all in a day's work.

So, Hamon (our antagonist and the king's right hand man) has a bone to pick with Mordecai (Esther's father figure; another Jew who has been a faithful worker in the kingdom for several years) because Mordecai refuses to bow down to Hamon as he pridefully commands. As the story continues, not only is Mordecai put on the kingdom's death list but so is the entire Jewish community. So Esther must use her favor with the king to appeal to him that her people must be spared. One of the prevalent themes in the book of Esther is God's provision, but the beauty of the story is a lack of a physical presence of God. Instead, his provision is seen through a series of "twists of fate". So at the end of the story, all the wrongs are righted. Hamon pays his dues and the king reissues decrees making it illegal to kill the Jews now. But the story doesn't just stop there. The last chapters are dedicated to recording the establishment of the Festival of Purim.

FINISH THE STORY.

God is not our last resort.

God is not your last resort.

He is not the one you call on when you're at your wit's end,

the end of your rope,

your last act of desperation.

We are not to make pleas to Him saying that although we don't believe in Him, if He could make this one thing happen,

we could go on living.

I am not saying He's distant,

sitting on some shadowed throne, aimlessly moving the chess pieces of our world from square to square.

I am not saying He is powerless or without care.

In fact, I am pleading the opposite case.

He is so full of glory we cannot even see His face.

The God I know is closer than my own heartbeat,

and more powerful than the winds of the strongest hurricane.

The God I know wants what's best for me, every day of my life.

He wants a relationship with me,

but I tell Him He's my last resort.

I tell Him I don't need Him day after day,

that it's my way or the highway.

That just because I can't see His plans scribbled in my moleskine,

I get scared and think He's not around.

When I place my class rank above my spiritual health,

I tell my creator that He's not good enough to save me.

That He doesn't know what's best for me and I can write my own prescriptions, thank you.

God is not my last resort.

He is in every flower that blooms,

every leaf that falls.

He pulls the sun up each morning and lays it to rest each evening.

Although the rains fall, and the thunders roll,

there is always a rainbow to behold.

God is always there.

In the midst of every heartache,

every tear that's shed,

every doubt we act on.

He will never leave nor forsake us.

He even reaches into the deep to save us.

And this is why God is not my last resort,

He is my strength and my light,

my reason and my purpose.

But I'm prone to wander and I'm prone to leave this God I love,

So here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it - seal it for Thy courts above.