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Our spiritual lives reflect the shape of our natural lives.
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Photo Credit: Tim Wright
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]We anticipate holidays like Labor Day for weeks on end. Then it passes, and we step into our daily fall routine. We switch between the extraordinary and the ordinary, and our spiritual lives follow suit.
As a kid I went to a youth conference that changed my life. After the conference, I couldn’t wait to go back. When I learned I couldn’t go to the next one, I was devastated. I wanted God in a specific time and place. I was living the ordinary but longing for the extraordinary.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
Breaking God out of Sunday
Whether it’s a conference or Sunday morning, we live our lives often looking to encounter God at a specific time and place. In many ways, this habit is right—these times set up a healthy rhythm and “spiritual highs” can lead to breakthrough.
But our weekly rhythms can create an unhealthy mindset. We begin to believe God belongs on Sunday and special occasions, and we miss the everyday supernatural.
Now, when I say, “everyday supernatural,” I promise I’m not trying to sound super spiritual. In fact, just the opposite.
The miracle of the Christian faith is how ordinary it is. Every religion prescribes practices and mindsets to reach God; Christianity tells how God reached us and wants to invade every part of our natural, ordinary lives.
Because of Jesus, the transcendent has become immanent.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
The Natural, the Supernatural, and You
Think about it. Before Jesus, the supernatural was strictly supernatural.
- If you want to be right with God, you offer sacrifices for sin.
- If you want to hear God’s Word, you read the scroll God gave by fire.
- If you want to access God’s presence—good luck! You can go only as close as the temple courts.
But in Jesus, everything changes. The supernatural becomes natural.
- God becomes man.
- Reconciliation to God becomes available to every person.
- God tears the temple veil, and the Spirit is accessible to every person.
- God gives us His Word in full, everything we need to know Him.
God is no longer hidden behind the temple curtain. He’s no longer consigned to Sunday morning. Why do we live like He is?
God doesn’t want 1/7th of your week; He wants all of it. He wants to be over it and under it and in it and through it. He wants to be the cause, the motivation, and the outcome of your life—the starting point, the end goal, and every step in-between.
And if that’s true—if that’s what God wants from us—then we need to learn to see the supernatural in the natural.
- Our everyday Bible reading becomes a chance to listen to God.
- Our everyday prayers reach the ears of heaven, and God moves in, through, for, and with us.
- Our everyday work becomes the chance to glorify God.
- Our everyday encounters opportunities to exude the love of Jesus.
- Our everyday Sunday becomes a chance to encourage one another with gifts given by God.
Because of Jesus, the natural becomes supernatural. We may look forward to holidays for weeks on end, but today you can meet the living God in your ordinary, everyday life.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1490959451076{background-color: #f5f5f5 !important;}”][vc_column_text]
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