What is a God moment?

It is in God seeing and ordering everything, so that not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him.

Sometimes He works actively and obviously — sometimes the finger of God is very manifest (see the finger on the wall in Dan. 5:5). Yet sometimes He acts indirectly in a way we do not immediately detect. He is, so to speak, acting behind the scenes. Yet He is moving the scene. That is what we usually describe as ‘providence’. He is acting in a hidden way.

The providence of God is something which we may not often consider or of which we may not always be conscious. Yet it is a reality. Whether we consider the course of world history or our own lives personally and in connection with other people, divine providence is always at work.

Nothing so much helps the Christian to endure the trials of his path as the habit of seeing God in everything. There is no circumstance, be it ever so trivial or ever so commonplace, which may not be regarded as a messenger from God, if only the ear be circumcised to hear, and the mind spiritual to understand the message. If we lose sight of this valuable truth, life, in many instances at least, will be but a dull monotony, presenting nothing beyond the most ordinary circumstances. On the other hand, if we could but remember, as we start each day on our course, that the hand of our Father can be traced in every scene — if we could see in the smallest, as well as in the most weighty circumstances, traces of the divine presence, how full of deep interest would each day's history be found!

Now, there are, perhaps, few things in which we so much fail as in apprehending the presence of God, and His dealing with our souls in every circumstance of daily life. We are constantly ensnared by looking at secondary causes; we do not realize God in everything. Hence Satan gets the victory over us. Were we more alive to the fact that there is not an event which happens to us, from morning to night, in which the voice of God may not be heard, the hand of God seen, with what a holy atmosphere would it surround us! Men and things would then be received as so many agents and instruments in our Father's hand; so many ingredients in our Father's cup.

The believer, therefore, must not look upon anything as ordinary, for God is in everything. True, he may have to pass through the same circumstances — to meet the same trials — to encounter the same reverses as other men; but he must not meet them in the same way, nor interpret them on the same principle; nor do they convey the same report to his ear. He should hear the voice of God, and heed His message, in the most trifling as well as in the most momentous occurrence of the day. The disobedience of a child, or the loss of an estate, the obliquity of a servant or the death of a friend, should all be regarded as divine messengers to his soul.

So also, when we look around us in the world, God is in everything. The overturning of thrones, the crashing of empires, the famine, the pestilence, and every event that occurs among nations, exhibit traces of the hand of God, and utter a voice for the ear of man. The devil will seek to rob the Christian of the real sweetness of this thought; he will tempt him to think that, at least, the commonplace circumstances of every-day life exhibit nothing extraordinary, but only such as happen to other men. But we must not yield to him in this. We must start on our course every morning, with this truth vividly impressed on our mind — God is in everything. The sun that rolls along the heavens in splendid brilliancy, and the worm that crawls along the path, have both alike been prepared of God, and, moreover, could both alike cooperate in the development of His unsearchable designs.

God is not only in control of the destiny of peoples and nations. Nor is His interest limited to the big issues in our lives. Rather, He holds everything is His mighty hand — even the small details of everyday life. Very often we do not take this into account and we ask questions — Why? How long? etc. However, our limited perception does not mean that His dealings with us are not real. They are! It was God who kept sleep away from king Ahasuerus. It was God who directed the king not to ask for some women to attend him and distract him (which was quite usual at court at that time) so that he asked to see ‘the book of the records’ (6:1). And it was God who directed his attention to the record this contained concerning the way Mordecai had saved his life in the past. Was all that just by chance? Not at all! God had all these small and inconspicuous details in His mighty hands. In the end, all these things turned out to fulfil His plans.

But were all these remarkable happenings just a series of coincidences? By no means: they were the movings of the hand of God, though He Himself remained hidden. God was behind the scenes of man's busy little world; but then, as has very well been observed, He moves all the scenes that He is behind. Moreover He moves them in favour of His people, if not always for their temporal preservation and advancement always for their spiritual good and the advancement of His own purposes.

There is with many a Christian the habit of looking at second causes, or even at third causes, in connection with the many events which go to make up their lives, and thus they miss the joy of tracing the moving of the hand of God behind all the scenes. When this habit becomes confirmed and inveterate the whole of one's life becomes a meaningless jumble of odds and ends, and the spirit becomes sorely tried. When, on the other hand, we look away from all secondary causes to God Himself, light and order begin to appear; though doubtless the full explanation of all circumstances contrary or otherwise, awaits that day when all the hidden things shall come to light.

I know, when you look at Elijah's life, you may say, "Certainly God did manifest Himself to Elijah in a marvelous, miraculous way, which we do not see at all now. To only some is it given to work in that way with God. We cannot see these things now." Yet God is the same living God; and we may be sure of this, that while it is true we do not realize what Elijah did, the failure is clearly our failure, and not God's. I do not mean to say there are what people call miracles in the self-same way now; that is not exactly what I am speaking of. We do not expect fire to fall from heaven, or any thing of that sort, very likely; but while all this is true, as we see how the draught of fishes could bring the living God home to a soul ready for the announcement, so we may see, and should be prepared to see, Him acting in every little event of our lives. We only need to look: just as with those people who are not prepared to find great things in the Word, so are never able to find great things in its The open eye is faith. It is the new sense of the child of God, and more certain than any other. In proportion as this is in exercise will the Word be permeated by a living Presence. "Quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," it will bring us under the eyes of "Him with whom we have to do."

So with God's presence about us. The earth is still full of Him. What has drawn a vail over His presence? Really, it is unbelief, — that is all. Unbelief! I grant you that vail is perfectly impenetrable unless the Word has approved itself to us as His revelation in the way we have spoken of. But then creation becomes, from mere materialism, spiritualized and transfigured. Our own history becomes the story of an omnipotent love, under which "all things work together for good to them that love God." He counts the very hairs of our head, goes beyond all our thought and care for ourselves, and fills our loneliest moments with His presence.