I was standing in the bathroom, brushing my teeth last minute, before running out the door to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. You could hear me grumbling through the water running. I was tired, and I didn’t want to go.

The Holy Spirit gave a convicting tug and brought me back to the days when I was a young unwed mom without insurance. The State insurance I had gotten for my young son covered him only, so I could not go and get my teeth cleaned and maintained.

When I married my husband, and he got a job where we had dental insurance, I began to go. I was twenty-two years old, and between the smoking and drinking gallons of coffee from the past years, along with my lack of care, they said my teeth were messy, and my gums were already headed towards gingivitis in a bad way.

They would have needed extensive work and healing if I had stayed on that path and not gotten care.

A few years later, after going consistently and taking better care of myself, they said you would not even know there had been issues, and I had a healthy mouth, teeth, and gums.

As I spit out the last of the residue in my mouth, I thanked God that I could go to the dentist that morning.

My “I don’t want to go” attitude changed into an “I get to go” attitude.

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I began to ponder that moment with the Lord. Some days I look and see the chaos around me. I see the devastation in people’s lives and our beautiful Nation’s discouraging state. I begin to say, “I don’t want to be here.” I find myself telling God how much I look forward to being with Him one day.

Then the Holy Spirit gives a convicting tug and brings me back to the book of Esther.

In the next few weeks, I will come back to dig into Esther more fully, but for today there is one scripture that stuck out in my mind.

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4: 13-14

God reminds me that He has created me intimately, uniquely, and specifically for the times He has placed me. This is not just true for me but for you too!

We get to be here right now!

We get to be a part of what God is doing here and now, where we live.

This turns my heart’s attitude from anxious, depressed, and discouraged to excited and anticipated for what God is doing and what is to come.

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When God provided the dental insurance, I could have just sat at home and still not gone to the dentist. I would have lived in pain and struggled through the agony of it. There would not have been any healing or restoration in my teeth and gums, and it would have gotten more infected, probably losing teeth and gums.

God provided, but I had to take action steps to make use of His provision. I had to make my appointment and be faithful to go. I had to listen to their wisdom about taking care of my teeth and gums. I had to be careful about how much sugar and junk I put in my mouth. I had to brush my teeth, floss, and do the things that were my responsibility to do for the healing and restoration to happen.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3-11

We have been given everything we need to live this life, in this time, through Jesus Christ. God has given us everything we need. His provision is there, but it takes action and effort on our part to live it out.

We can choose not to do anything with the provision we have been given, but it will lead to a defeated and unhealthy life. It certainly won’t show others that God has redeemed and healed us.

Or we can take his provision and do our part by abiding in Christ. We can take the time to be in God’s Word, in prayer, and in community with one another. We can continue to draw close to God, and He will draw close to us. We can continue to seek God daily instead of trying to live in our own strength.

We have life, healing, and restoration through Him if we choose to receive it and walk in it.

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Life is hard. The Christian life is difficult too, but we have all that God has provided to us. Will, we thank Him because we get to live it in the here and now, and will we do our part to live in the provision He has given us?

I know that is where I want to live. In the healed and restored place God has brought me.

Thank You, Father, for Your love for us. Thank You that we get to live here in this Nation at this very moment in time. Thank You for giving us all we need to live in You. Help us to do our part and walk with You. In Jesus’ Name!