How do you know of Gods faithfulness?

(Written Wednesday night, September 6^th)

I (matt) am sitting down, trying to scramble and get a lesson prepared for Youth Group this evening when the point of the passage hits me. I started thinking about what Sarah and I are about to do and realized that we have just been through a similar (but not as drastic) situation as Esther.

Sarah and I are leading the Youth Group for her home church here in Camarillo. We are leading the kids through a series young people in the bible who took risks. This week is about Esther. It's a fairly lengthy story about how God used her (go and read it for yourself) but the point is that she took a risk and put herself in an uncomfortable position in order for God to work through her. Perhaps the the best line is when Mordecai tells her, “and who knows but that you may have been placed in this seat of royalty for such a time as this.” I began thinking of ways that we can all put ourselves at risk for God. But more specifically God showed me how he is doing that in Sarah's and my life currently.

Sarah and I just spent several days looking at apartments and attempting to apply for one before we left. We didn’t know much about the town, or really what it will be like to live in any place other than California; the whole snow thing will be an adventure amongst itself. We debated over location, cost, what’s included and all the other things that go into house hunting. As the process went along, we continued to pray that God would show us the house that he wanted for us to live in, and therefore the people that we would live near. It became clear that there was only one place that seemed to fit. Eventually we decided to take a risk and go for it, only applying for one apartment and no backups, so we dropped off the paperwork. We were told that they would get back to us in about a week to see if we could move in. However, in less than 24 hours we got the call saying the apartment was ours.

God accepts your risk taking and rewards it more than you know; sometimes those rewards come the day after, sometimes years after. But whenever your reward comes, know that it is a most amazing God that gives it.