The God of Everyday

But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope: 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

    his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

    “therefore I will hope in him.” 

- Lamentations 3:21-23

This morning, I skipped my devotion. It seemed like a peaceful day where not much could go wrong, and I thought I could manage it with the treasury of already memorized scriptures in my mind. I thought I could do whatever I had to do in the day without concern, without worry, without anxiety. Everything seemed jolly well within my control. I also had some things to pray about, but I wrote them down and thought I'd do it later because there were other things I felt I had to complete first, before I could've done anything else.

From the scripture above, we see that God's mercies are new every morning. After all, each day has enough trouble of it's own (Matthew 6:34), and God gives us enough grace for the day to endure that day and that day alone. The next day, the same thing happens - God's mercies are renewed again, and we receive the grace and strength to endure it yet again. Daily, we are called to trust in the Lord to garner whatever we need to proceed with the next 16 hours (assuming you get your eight hours of sleep), after rise and shine.

Yet today, I put God out of the picture. Sure, I envisioned God and thought about scripture and church and doctrine and theology and searched these things up in Wikipedia and learned more about them, but I had neglected God altogether. I hadn't spent time with Him. I didn't quite talk to Him. I just ignored Him and carried on with the day, without taking in the new mercies He was going to provide me for today.

And I failed. And when I failed to hold things up, I went back to Him. I read His word and cried out to Him and I received His mercies. But my refreshment was now wasted, because I only have about four more hours left to draw from a reservoir of a day's worth of grace (given that I sleep by midnight, if not earlier). There is no doubt - God's faithfulness sure is great and His steadfast love never ceases, but I have been a fool for letting myself miss out on the abundance of His love.

How utterly, stupid, if I dare say so myself.

It also got me thinking about what and how much my faith meant to me.

Is my faith worth everything to me that I would give every second, every minute, every hour, every day - basically, every moment of my life to Him?

Are my bad moments dedicated to Him alone, while the greater and more joyous occasions are left for me to squander freely without acknowledging that they also belongs to God?

Is my God, the LORD over all that is in my life - the great I AM?

I cannot keep on doing this. I cannot only seek the Lord in times of anxiety and trouble, and then stray away when I feel okay and think I can deal with the day on my own. He is the source of my strength in times of trouble, but He is also God over the sunny days of my life where everything looks like rainbows and unicorns (forgive me, I ran out of metaphors).

It doesn't matter how I feel right now, or how I will feel tomorrow. It doesn't matter if I think I feel okay, or I think I don't feel okay. My faith is not based on how I feel about having morning devotions, or how sleepy I feel at night before I slumber. My faith is founded on the Cross, and it needs to be a faith not just of words, but of action - or of works, which complete faith, if you'd like to reference James 2.

And that includes every single day of my life surrendered to Him.