When life gets louder, our reflective time gets smaller. We often find ourselves in seasons where we are juggling transitions on a completely different scale—balancing demanding careers, ministry, home moves, and the beautiful but exhausting chaos of raising a young child.
When complexity peaks, our time with the Lord is frequently the first thing sacrificed. But when connection with God is diminished, our spirit becomes malnourished. Trying to operate out of your own spirit without the Holy Spirit is like trying to send an email using dial-up internet—everything feels painfully slow, frustrating, heavy, and ultimately leads us to give up. We try to parent, counsel, and serve on human strength alone. The Scripture reminds us how foolish it is:
Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
Galatians 3:3
One of the lesson’s I’ve been learning in this busy season is to recognize God in our day to day.
Recognizing God requires you to look for Him. You cannot see what you are not looking for. It is not a passive activity; it is an intentional shifting of our eyes.
Consider the “Jeep Wrangler effect”: if you spend weeks researching and watching videos of a specific car, suddenly you see it everywhere on the road. The cars didn’t multiply overnight; your brain was simply trained and primed to notice them. In the exact same way, we must train our minds to spot God’s moving hand in real time.
Recognizing God can be easier in the miraculous breakthroughs of life, but He also lives intimately in the mundane. Training ourselves to see him in the little things helps us to see Him and expand our vision of Him. What if what you were experiencing was no coincidence but really a move from God.
I think we can agree that it is far harder to recognize Him when things stall. We can experience a massive faith victory—like passing a major professional clinical exam against all odds—and celebrate God’s provision in the car, only for the vehicle to refuse to start moments later in a crowded parking lot (maybe that’s just me). Within minutes, panic replaces praise. We worry about melting groceries, unavailable mechanics, and missing tomorrow’s work. Yet, if we step back, His provision continues to break through the chaos.
In the midst of chaos he provided food for us as we waited; The car miraculously started twice just when hope was running thin, getting the family safely home. The next morning, my client sessions smoothly transitioned online, a spare vehicle was loaned by Jen’s family, and a local mechanic just 5 minutes from our home opened up their availability.
Nothing changed because of human effort. God was simply making a way, weaving grace through the disruption. When we fail to recognize Him in the midst of the trial, we slowly slip into a period of hopelessness and defeat. But when we see what He is doing, our perspective shifts completely.
In our season of Increasing our faith, let us continue to recognize God in our day to day. As the scripture tells us, God is doing a new thing, Do you not perceive it?
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19
Let’s not let a busy schedule or an unexpected trial blind us this week. Expect to find Him, look for Him, and watch your vision of how big and great He is expand day by day.
Father, I pray that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear you. Help us to be sensitive to your Holy Spirit and recognize you moving in our lives. Fill us anew each morning with your grace and mercy. Lead us in your ways. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!