I suspect that there is one thing that is true of most Christians today – when we look for God, we look for Him in the exciting, the extraordinary, the uncommon things of life. That’s why so many Christians today, given the choice, gravitate to larger churches – something is happening there. It’s exciting. We feel good there.
Don’t misread me, I’m not against big churches. Some of my best friends are pastors of large churches. Some of my family members attend big churches. Mega churches have a bigger influence and create a larger ripple effect than small churches and I’m thankful.
My point is that God isn’t always where we think He is. In fact, I think that we often miss God because of our preoccupation with the exciting.
That’s because many times God is in the mundane. The ordinary. The unexciting. The commonplace. And we miss Him because we’re looking in the wrong places.
You can call this the Elijah syndrome. From 1 Kings 17 where we first meet the prophet, through chapter 18 Elijah’s life was one exciting event after another. He stood toe to toe with the King as only a prophet could; he ate food miraculously provided for him by God; he performed miracles; he raised the dead; he challenged the King and his false prophets to a contest of fire; he defeated the forces of evil; and he saw miraculous answers to prayer. Elijah was living in the realm of the exciting!
Then he fled from an angry woman, running as fast as his legs could take him all the way back to Mount Horeb (Sinai) where Moses had met God generations before.
It was there on a desolate, barren mountain that God appeared to Elijah. Not in the hurricane force winds that ripped the mountain. Not in the earthquake that rocked the earth. Not in the fire that raged across the landscape.
God appeared to Elijah in the mundane. He came to the prophet in a quiet, whispering voice.
Nothing special about that voice. Nothing exciting or extraordinary or uncommon. Just a quiet whisper of a voice. God was in the mundane. He was in the ordinary.
I believe that is where we will most often find God in our lives. We will find Him in the quiet of our Bible reading. Or in the solitude of our prayers. Or in a private God conversation with a friend as they encourage us. Or in the everyday events of life as we faithfully live for Him.
Sure, the exciting is fun – and sometimes it’s invigorating. But you can’t live all of your spiritual life on the exciting and the extraordinary. God doesn’t expect us too.
Most of our spiritual lives involve the ordinary and that’s OK, because God is there.
Stay in the Word
Pastor Steve
A Word for the Week 