Seeing God in the Mundane, the Anxiety, and the Trial
How to See and Encounter God
There are times I fall into complacency in my prayer routine.
I read the same spiritual book passages, recite the same prayers, and end up treating prayer like it’s a check in the box. But in doing so, I miss the point of prayer, which is simply conversation with God. It’s a chance to take refuge and meditate upon the loving glance the Lord looks at me.
He often shows His love for us in the good and bad moments in our lives.
We can see these events as gifts if we look closely. He’s waiting for us to open our hearts and not only to see but encounter Him. How do we reach this point with the Lord?
Here are three ways that we can pray so that we encounter God working in our lives:
1. Find God in the mundane
For the most part, many of us find our days to be routine, mundane, and monotonous.
As a result, we often fall into a sort of autopilot where we kind of just exist and we don’t really think about much. We’re not forming any conscious decisions about how to move forward. We’re kind of just letting our flesh dictate what we do on this animalistic level.
But we were created to be more than just animals.
We are adopted sons and daughters of a God who gave us a rational intellect to know, love, and serve Him.
If we are His children, we can only infer that God is our Father–and a Father who gives us good gifts beyond our comprehension!
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:11 NRSV-CI
God is always giving us good gifts, but unfortunately we take these good gifts for granted because we see them as common to our daily routines. Take a few minutes to consider these morning rush events:
- You didn’t sleep through your alarm
- The coffee you just poured is exactly what you needed to wake up
- You had a bit of quiet to yourself in the morning before waking the kids up
- You didn’t lose your patience getting the kids up and ready
- Your children smiled at you before leaving for work
- You have a job
- You arrived at work safely
These things are not small in God’s eyes, and He’s waiting for you to take each of these seemingly uneventful moments of our days and transform them into encounters with Him, who loves us with a steady and everlasting love.
So, when you open your eyes to the true significance of the small things in life, praise God for giving you the eyes to see His most precious love for you.
2. What is making you anxious? Are you avoiding anything?
God isn’t only with you in the good moments of our days.
He’s also with you when you’re neck deep in quicksand. Yet there are many times where we’d rather ignore that we are actually sinking in quicksand, only to be focused on the arrangement of daffodils at the other side. We so easily fall into this mindset of avoidance.
I suppose it’s human instinct to avoid discomfort, but this is what mere animals do.
The Christian way of approaching discomfort isn’t to avoid it, but to take this moment of suffering to the Lord in prayer.
These anxieties that we fight to avoid are opportunities for encounter with God, who will sustain us and help us through whatever misfortune befalls us.
The truth is that there isn’t a single suffering or trial we go through that God won’t transform for our good.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 NRSV-CI
Before we were even born on this Earth, He’s preordained that these trials be allowed to mold our hearts to be more faithful, hopeful, and fuller with love.
Don’t avoid your anxieties, but instead, offer your worries to the Lord who will transform them.
3. What act of faith, hope, and love is God asking you to make?
Every joy and trial is an opportunity to encounter God, who waits for us to respond in faith, hope, and love.
Lily’s birth was one of the scariest times in my life. When Jade’s waters broke, blood was everywhere. She was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night and as I was following the ambulance, I genuinely thought I was going to lose both of them.
Yet in this moment He was calling me to trust in Him.
So I asked Him for a deeper faith, and in return, He gave me eyes to see how He was working in this scary situation.
Although my eyes deceived me, He was giving me the hope that everything would be okay. I soon became aware of how He was caring, nurturing, and healing Jade and Lily through the hands of the medics, nurses, and doctors that night. The second Lily came out, I couldn’t help but sob tears of joy and thank the Lord for His goodness.
Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see Him working; a heart that hopes for His salvation, and lips to sing His praises.
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