Living For God During the Lows AND Highs

Recently I saw this quote by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and posted it on my Facebook feed. “Though my natural instinct is to wish for a life free from pain, trouble, and adversity, I am learning to welcome anything that makes me conscious of my need for Him.” I got thinking about my walk with God and my highs and lows in life. Often it takes the down times in life to seek God, get close to him, and pray. That’s when I see my needs the most. But what about when things aren’t so bad? Where’s my focus then? Do I still need God? Do I still want him? Or do I only want him to make my life easier?

I’ve found that often on the days when I have extra time and things are going well, I drift into an entertainment and self-indulgent mindset. I forget that God isn’t there for me to make my life easier. Often my motive in prayer is for things to be easy so I can relax. But God’s given me a commission, a purpose, and a relationship with him that goes far beyond making my life look good and feel easy.

Why do I pray? Do I pray for myself or for God and a relationship with him? Am I living his purposes or my own? Prayer means having a relationship with God which brings me the most joy and purpose. It may lead me from spending my afternoon with a good fiction book to instead spending my afternoon praying for others, sending encouraging notes or verses to people, reading a good nonfictional book addressing some need I have, or doing something to bless someone in my family.

Yes, the difficult times do bring me a closeness to God as I see his provision for me through incredibly hard life circumstances. But can I seek God and see my need for him and desire to follow his purpose for each moment of my day no matter what? Can I cherish just being with him and praising him for the many blessings He has given me each day? Can I see the world through his eyes? See the people around me as He sees them? Be the hands and voice of Jesus in their lives?

I pray that we all would learn to ask these questions regularly. Each day has precious moments and is a gift that we can use for ourselves or to glorify God and know him better. I pray that we will all seek God through every season of life.