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There’s a story told about a little boy who would kneel down beside his bed every night and say his prayers. His father did not believe in God, so he tried different ways to refute his young son’s faith.

One day, the dad decided to hang a piece of paper on the wall beside the boy’s bed, hoping to discourage his praying. Printed in large letters were the words, “God is nowhere.”

To the father’s surprise, the message had the opposite effect. Running up to his dad, the son had a big smile on his face and could hardly contain his excitement. “Look at this sign! It says, ‘God is now here.”

Maybe the child was just learning to read, but I like to think he was seeing through the eyes of faith, the faith of a little child. Whatever the reason, the little boy believed God was with him.

God is a God of the now. A search of the Scriptures shows why God is a God of the present tense and why He is relevant to us today.

Are you facing what looks like an impossible situation? The Apostle Paul reminds us, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all what we ask or think,” (Ephesians 3:20).

Who makes it possible for us to live a victorious Christian life? “Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ,” 2 Corinthians 2:14 tells us.

Do you know your sins have been forgiven? His Word invites us to, “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). John Newton wrote about his salvation, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

We know God is a God of now because He introduced Himself to Moses as “I am” (Exodus 3).

Author Helen Mallicoat has written a message as though God were speaking to us. “When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not ‘I was.‘

“When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not ‘I will be.” When you live in the moment, it’s not hard. I am here. My name is I am.”

C.S. Lewis, a former atheist, put it this way, “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God.” Pastor and author A.W. Tozer once said, “Were every man on earth to become an atheist, it could not affect God in any way. He is what he is in himself without regard to any other. To believe in Him adds nothing to his perfections; to doubt takes nothing away.”

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever” (1 Timothy 1:17).

— Jan White has compiled a collection of her columns in her book, “Everyday Faith for Daily Life.”