Trusting God in the Everyday
photo creidt: pixabay, cropped, words added
If we learn to trust God with the everyday worries of life, then when the big stuff happens, we’ll be more prepared to handle those things too. Like a slowly dripping faucet, often it’s the accumulated “little” stuff that steals us of our joy. It’s easy to brush those things off as not important enough to bother God with- but that isn’t right.
Why is it important to trust God in the everyday? It’s important because worrying is a distraction that takes away from the life of peace and joy that God intended for us to have. I like how Amy Simpson explains it in her book, Anxious. To preface, she’s writing about how cell phones are sometimes used specifically because we want to be distracted, then she says,
“Worrying produces a similar result, with anxiety drawing our attention away from signs and signals God puts in our path. Our own internal conversations keep us from engaging in the conversation God wants to have with us.”
We’re told repeatedly in God’s word not to worry.
“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7.
“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” Luke 12:25
I don’t want to be distracted from what God has for me. I don’t want to waste my energy worrying about what I can’t control. Do you? Sometimes, God teaches us to rely on him through the big stuff, but even more often, he uses the everyday little things. Here’s a story about a time when I learned this lesson.
My family and I were at a friend’s house for a fourth of July party, boating and having fun with some friends. When it was time to leave, we couldn’t find our keys anywhere. We looked and looked, for quite some time, until we were resigned to think that they must have fallen in the water somewhere. This wasn’t a catastrophe, but it was annoying. Finally, another friend with some sense asked if he could just pray about it. He did, and the keys were found, about a minute later, deep in the cushions of a couch. We laughed about it and went on our way, but it really was one of those “aha” moments for me. I did take away a lesson from that experience, to bring even the little things to God in prayer.
I’m not saying that God will answer every prayer when and how you might imagine, but it’s important to trust God and pray in everything. God was glorified in that silly little story about the lost keys.
Corrie ten Boom, a concentration camp survivor, said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” The big and the little worries- we can bring them all to Him.
We need to focus our strength on what has been placed in front us today. That is what is true and real- not the future or the past. God has been with us all along, he is with us right now and he will be with us tomorrow, whatever it brings. He loves us and he has given us a hope, so that we can live lives that bring glory to Him- lives that reflect the gifts of the Holy Spirit, lives of peace and joy.
