How to See God’s Glory in Your Everyday 

I’m honored to welcome my friend Emily to the blog today.  She has some wonderful resources to share with you.  I’ve already received mine, and these will bless you richly as you learn how to see God’s glory in your everyday spaces!  Here’s Emily:

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Tears streamed down my cheeks as my hands gripped the steering wheel. Heading home from Bible study, these tears came from a place of longing.

Longing for what, you ask? These were tears I pulled from deep in the well of longing for more.

My drive home meant about 40 minutes of cornfields, back roads and farms. Which meant it always provided space for thinking and praying. This night, I thought about how the evening that awaited me felt empty. Nothing really to do, no one to care for, no one to talk to.

Before I knew it, I had dropped the bucket down the well and drew up my tears for overflowing. The physical ache I felt for wanting my evening to matter hurt more than I wanted to admit. I felt ordinary, my evening felt monotonous, my soul felt no purpose for the hours that lay ahead.

While I don’t remember my exact prayer, what I cried out to God in the silence of my car sounded something like, “What else is there? Is this really all you have for me? Will it always feel like this? Will anything I do actually last beyond me?”

Seeing God’s Glory in My Everyday

Friend, do you know what that ache feels like? The one that you can’t quite put your finger on for why you feel it? But you know it comes wrapped in a package that looks ordinary and mundane. And it tells you you’re just going through the motions of your daily life.

You know God is there, you cry out to Him, but for some reason you just can’t see how He works in the midst of your everyday. You struggle with knowing where to start when it comes to trusting God’s purpose for your daily life.

I understand.

And in my own moment of tear-filled aching, God, in His graciousness, answered me.

Do you know those moments when you don’t necessarily hear an audible voice, but you know deep in your soul God spoke to you, somehow, some way? This was one of those moments.

“If only you knew what I had planned.”

Those were the words that jumped into my brain. And let me tell you, the tears fell even more when this whisper hit my soul.

God wasn’t laying out His plan for me to gaze over and memorize. He didn’t show me the to-do list of what I needed to accomplish in order to get to the “what” of His purpose for me.

He simply encouraged me with these words, reminding me that He does have a purpose for me. That He does show up in those moments that feel gloomy and weighted with a lack of productivity.

Why do I tell you this story? Because I desperately want you to know I understand the longing for more than an ordinary, run-of-the-mill life.

How You Can See God’s Glory in Your Everyday

Friend, you are not alone in your everyday. It’s not purposeless. God is working, and He reveals Himself to you in ways that sometimes you miss. We all do it. We become so consumed with getting through that we forget to look for God’s fingerprints.

So how do we remember He’s here?

How do we remember His glory is in our midst?

How do we remember He sits with us in the quiet?

How do we remember He has entrusted these moments to our souls?

Well, I have discovered ways in which to remind my soul as I look to Jesus that His exceptional truly is in my midst. And I want to share them with you.

Pray for Eyes to See

First and foremost, we must pray for eyes to see and ears to hear. A simple prayer to start sounds something like, “God, I invite your glory into this moment. Give me eyes to see you.”

And much like God showing up in a quiet whisper to me in my tear-filled moment, His glory in the midst of our ordinary is not always neon lights shining from above. But they are sweet moments. And they become a part of our routine as we train our hearts to seek Him in those moments when it’s easier to simply cry.

You see, this ordinary, this mundane, this everyday life is producing in you eyes to see God in the smallest of movements. It’s developing in you a desire for more of Him not just in the deep valleys or high mountaintops, but in the normal.

It’s time to invite God’s glory into the everyday, because there we will unearth moments of Him working. There will always be quiet days, sometimes quiet years or even decades. But God is right there with us in the times that feel purposeless.

Write it Down

Another way to remind your soul about Jesus in your midst is through writing down when you see His fingerprints. This doesn’t need to feel homework-like, but it’s too easy to forget those little moments unless we etch them down. The more we remember God working in our everyday, the more we will look for Him tomorrow.

It’s easy, though, to not do this. It’s easy to say, “I’ll write it down later,” or simply think this doesn’t matter at all.

I’m a writer, so this practice brings me joy. I write these moments on my phone, in my journal or, honestly, in blog posts like this one.

But if you’re someone who really doesn’t find any joy in this process, I encourage you to find another outlet for remembering. The writing part isn’t necessarily the important part (although I might argue a bit with you that it’s the easiest way to do this!).

The important aspect of this tip is to find a way to help you remember God working in your everyday. To remember and to reflect.

Maybe for you that’s a picture. Or an item placed in a strategic place. Maybe it’s a post-it note with a verse.

Whatever you choose, use that one thing to remind yourself of God and Him working in your midst.

Praise Him

This might sound rather intuitive, but too often we forget to praise God for the little moments. But the more we praise Him, the more we will find our souls looking for Him and finding Him.

And here, you find joy.

As you turn your eyes toward your Heavenly Father, you catch glimpses of His glory.

You no longer look at your everyday with disdain but see it as beautiful.

You experience the joy and relief of knowing He sees you in your routine.

You more-fully trust God’s plan for you, even if you don’t see the fruit of your obedience right now.

And you praise Him for it all.

Here, you truly feel joy in the midst of your everyday.

So What Next?

If you want tools and resources to help you start experiencing God’s glory in your everyday, I would love to invite you to look into my subscription box, Unearthing Everyday Faith.

Each box has four elements — a devotional, prayer or Scripture cards, a tool to put what you learn into practice and one item to enjoy — as well as an online resource library with even more! These elements will help you recognize ordinary moments of obedience and know they are for God’s glory.

I want to sit down with you through each of these monthly boxes and encourage you and provide resources for you to see God working in your ordinary. To truly believe, understand and put into practice the truth that your everyday is beautiful in God’s eyes.

Learn more here, and happy unearthing, friend!