How can I live faithfully to God every day?
If I am being honest, sometimes I forget to think about God. I know I shouldn’t say that. I work for a church, preach sermons, lead Bible classes, and am a deeply committed follower of Jesus. But, sometimes, I forget to think about God.
If you will allow me, I will guess that the same is true of you too. Sometimes, you forget to think about God. When you are in the midst of a boring meeting at work (or even an exciting meeting too), or when the list of things to do in a single day or in just one hour continue to stack up and you aren’t sure how you are going to get it all done, or when you are just bored and there doesn’t seem like there is all that much to do, maybe you too forget about God.
I hope I am not being too presumptuous, but I think there are certain times when we all forget to think about God. Which is a real shame because, for those of us who have committed to living faithfully with this God, thinking about God and being present with God is the most meaningful thing that we can do. But, if we are honest, sometimes we forget.
The good news is that God is always willing to forgive us, especially when we turn our attention back to him. And I am thankful for that grace that God gives me all the time.
But, at the same time, I don’t want to just give up and not try to do a better job of incorporating God into my daily life, and I hope you feel the same way–no matter what stage of life or stage of faith you are in. I hope we all want to grow in how we connect with God regularly.
I hope we all want to ask the question, “How can I live faithfully to God every day?” And even more than every day, every moment of every day?
There are a couple of suggestions that I can give to you, although I hope you know some of your own as well. The first is simply this: begin to see your life, your entire life, as a service to God. A.W. Tozer writes about this by saying, “To do all to the glory of God is more than pious idealism. It opens before us the possibility of making every act of our lives contribute to the glory of God.” Everything that we do can be of service to God, whether it is something “inherently spiritual” or not. Even something as simple as waking up, or of eating and drinking can be done for the glory of God.
The second is to practice praying continuously as Paul instructs in 1 Thessalonians. In order to this, we enter into a mindset of constant prayer, where even our very breath is meant to be a prayer to God. All throughout Christian history, Christians have practiced this by saying “breath prayers.” One common breath prayer is to say as you inhale, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God,” and then as you exhale, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.”
This week, reflect on how you can faithfully to God every day, and even during every moment of every day. Ask yourself these questions:
1. Where has God been present with me today, even if I didn’t realize it at the time?
2. What can I look back on today and be thankful that God has done for me?
3. What gifts has God provided me with for this very moment?
