How to Notice Miracles in the Mundane

We are a distracted generation. With the Internet, laptops, and smartphones, we have an entire database of information at our fingertips. Whether we want to know how far the earth is from the moon or what the neighbor had for breakfast, it’s all available to us in a matter of seconds.

This is both good and bad. It’s good because we’re now able to learn and connect with one another like never before. It’s bad because having all this information available to us has become a distraction.

And if there’s one thing that will prevent us from seeing God move in our lives, it’s distractions.

Your distraction may not be your phone; it’s anything you give an excessive amount of time and energy to that prevents you from tending to more important priorities.

As believers, God should be our priority, and if we’re more prone to pick up our phones than pray, we’re missing out.

We’ve been fooled into thinking our distractions can satisfy and fulfill us; that’s why we keep going back to them. Instead, we miss out on the true satisfaction only God can provide. Everything we think we’ll find in distraction, God has already granted us, and every time we overindulge, we miss out.

Martha, in Luke 10, was distracted. She invited Jesus to her home, and instead of spending time with Him, learning from Him, and enjoying His presence like her sister Mary, she chose to clean up.

There’s nothing wrong with cleaning up or wanting a tidy house. But because she was so distracted by her productivity, she couldn’t see the value in simply being with the God of the universe.

I feel convicted just writing that. How many times have thought I’d be happy if my house were clean, or if I had more money in the bank, or if I had a different job completely, ignoring the fact that every day I have access to the Prince of Peace?

Distraction is an ugly cycle of seeing what we don’t have and seeking more and more of it outside of God. It’s a trap because our true satisfaction only comes from Jesus Christ.

God wants to move in our lives and grant us the peace and satisfaction we desperately desire. There are so many ways He is at work right now, but distraction prevents us from seeing it.

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Many of us miss God’s hand in our lives because we’re looking in the wrong direction. We create these ideas about what it looks like to have God’s involvement in our lives, and when we don’t see that exact expectation, we assume God’s not with us.

However, if we genuinely want evidence of God in our lives, we must expect the unexpected.

As the Israelites waited for the Savior promised to them in the Old Testament, they expected an earthly king with political and social power; when Jesus came in humility, they were not sure He was the one. They underestimated Jesus because they were looking for a leader that fit perfectly into their box.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that placing God in a box is a sure way to miss Him moving in your life.

• Maybe you’re praying for a new job, but God grants you the endurance to maintain the one you have now.
• Maybe you want to birth a child, but God opens a door for you to adopt.
• Maybe you’re anxious to escape a challenging season, but God uses it to draw you closer to Him and ready you for what He is calling you to do in the next season.

God doesn’t always show up the way we expect, but we can be sure He will show up.

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Speaking of expectations, many of us expect some grand act of God to know He is active in our lives. We want the sky to open and fire to fall from heaven to be sure God is with us. And sometimes, God does do what we would consider big things to get our attention.

However, just because something we’re doing or experiencing seems small, mundane, or (dare I say) boring doesn’t mean God’s not in it.

As a mom, I spend much of my time doing the same thing over and over and over again: wash the dishes, fold clothes, pick up the same toy for the hundredth time. I’m often tempted to run from these boring tasks and distract myself with something more exciting. But when I do, I miss out on seeing and hearing God in the mundane.

I can’t tell you how many times God has spoken to me while washing the dishes or putting the clothes up. God is in the ordinary with us, and if we’ll sit still long enough, we’ll see Him moving in the everyday activities of our lives.

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• Prayer is the key to experiencing God’s work in your life.
• Prayer is how we start to activate God’s power in our lives so we can see Him at work in the first place.
• Prayer invites God unto our space to move.
• Prayer shows that we expect Him to show up and believe that He can.

Now, prayer doesn’t just stop at asking God to do a lot of stuff for us. It also involves remembering and praising Him for what He’s already done. Whenever I look over old prayer journals, I’m always amazed at how God answered those requests. At the time of writing those prayers, I was desperately seeking the Lord for answers and asking Him to move.

It’s easy to forget when He does answer prayer because we’re so quick to move on to our next request.

But when we take time to pray and reflect, we clearly see that though we may not be where we want, God has been moving to bring us beyond where we were. 

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We live in a world that thinks busy means success. People pride themselves in working unhealthy hours and losing sleep to work even more. But Jesus never said He was looking for busy people. He said He was looking for fruitful people.

Just because you’re doing a lot doesn’t mean you’re doing what God has called you to. Most of the time, busy becomes a barrier blocking us from experiencing God and seeing Him moving in our lives. This happens because we end up doing work we weren’t called to do in the first place. When we’re not being led by God but by work for the sake of work, we’ll miss out on Him.

God doesn’t call us to do nothing or not to work hard. He calls to follow Him. Sometimes, that looks like work, and sometimes, that looks like being still. It’s in the stillness what we open ourselves up to hear from God. He tells us to,“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10)

• We know God in stillness.
• We hear Him in quietness.
• We see Him move when our soul and mind is at peace.

I get it. Life is short, so there is the temptation to rush it. But it’s in the rushing of our lives that we miss out. It’s in the slowing down that we see God.

Through avoiding distractions, expecting the unexpected, embracing the mundane, praying, and slowing down, we will see that God cares about all the details of our lives big and small. We’ll experience God moving in exciting and faithful ways if we just pay closer attention.

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Christina Patterson is a Bible teacher, author, and speaker passionate about empowering women in the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of God’s Word. Christina holds a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from Liberty University and is the founder of Beloved Women, a 501(c)3 non-profit providing resources and community for women to truly know who they are in Christ: His Beloved. She is also the author of several books, Bible Studies, and the creator of the LIFE Bible Journal that helps believers to intentionally study the Bible and apply God’s Word to their everyday lives. Connect with Christina at www.belovedwomen.org. 

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