Welcome to a totally normal day of life. Yip, just your average Wednesday here, sandwiched between a Tuesday and a Thursday that may seem totally unremarkable. Hmmmm, nothing really special about this day? Nothing to really get all rip roaring excited over? It’s all just normal.

Normal can become boring. We have our routines, and we follow our routines unknowningly. Did you know you spend 90% of your life in a small circle around where you live. This is called your life radius. This is where you wake up, where you work, where you shop, most everything you do all within this tiny circle in this great big world, very rarely ever venturing beyond its borders. You drive the same roads, go to the same stores, order the same foods, and do the same tasks over and over again, and you never really think about it, because it’s normal.

And we never realize what a gift normal is, until our whole little world is flipped upside down.

We’re never even aware of how treasured a normal day should be until our normal is threatened.

But today, let’s do this differently. Let’s take this normal day of life, and let’s be fully aware of the treasure it is. Let’s stop the endless quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow, and just hold what we have right now. Remember, my friend, you will not always have this normalcy in your life. The day may come when you would give everything you have to just have this again.

Yes, this. This normal day. This miraculously unremarkable day that just arrived without a boom, because most everything really is just working.

It’s unremarkable that your car started today. You didn’t even notice it. But for some of us driving around vehicles well beyond their life expectancy, the fact that your car is running today is really something worth celebrating. Shout out to you, Jesus, somehow making that 2002 Ford Focus fire up again!

It’s unremarkable that your eyes are seeing, your ears are hearing, your legs are walking, and your lungs have breath. You didn’t even have to think about that today, now did you? It’s just all normal. But dang, girl, do you have any idea all God did behind the scenes on your behalf to make that totally unremarkable for you? He’s so overwhelmingly good at his job, that you just expect his part to always be done seamlessly.

Wouldn’t it have been a shocker this morning to wake up and not be able to do all that is mindlessly normal to you? But instead, you woke up with most everything working, and therefore normal becomes unimpressive, unnoticed, and uncelebrated.

Oh no, no, no … ridiculously blessed girls like me and you simply cannot be living uncelebrated days. We cannot be the recipients of everything that is good and right on a continually repeated basis and allow it to go unnoticed. All this miraculous normalcy cannot become unimpressive.

WAKE UP SIS, this is a normal day because of the endless bounty and blessings from a mighty God who oversees every detail of your life.

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

We often claim if we knew what God’s will was, we would follow it with reckless abandon. Oh if God would just be clear, send me a sign, tell me exactly what he wants me to do, I would surely be faithful.

Well, there’s your sign. It doesn’t get any clearer than this. 3 verses that read like a bulleted list that say THIS IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU.

But you passed right over that little list didn’t you? It didn’t seem specific enough for your needs? It doesn’t seem to really apply to your life? Oh, but girl, it does. These are 3 specific things God wills for YOU to do today right in the middle of your normal day where everything seems rather unremarkable.

Read it again. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

What I noticed while reading this was it’s not just a sentence with commas, but it’s actually 3 separate verses. You don’t lump sum these things up and call it one, no they’re separate. Apply each one individually, this is God’s will for you.

Verse 16: Rejoice always.

In Greek, the original word translated to rejoice literally means to be “favorably inclined to God’s grace.” Girls, this doesn’t mean you just show up with joy today, it means you are available to experience God’s grace.

Are you available for God’s grace today? I mean looking for it and expecting it! I have an image of a hunter perched up in a tree, sitting ever so still waiting for his deer to walk through the woods. He’s positioned to find it. He’s expecting to get it. And isn’t this how we should be with God’s grace? To rejoice means you’re positively on the hunt for God’s grace over every detail of your life. Wherever you are, whatever you’re going through, and whatever you’re doing, you’re favorably inclined to God’s grace and positioned to rejoice.

God’s grace is here, and I will recognize it. This will not pass by me. I’m rejoicing today.

Verse 17: Pray continually.

Pray about it. Pray about all of it. Just keep an open line of communication with your Heavenly Father. Everything can become a prayer. A “Lord, that is some delicious coffee.” “God, I see that gorgeous sky today.” “God help me step away from the junk today.” “Father, put one hand on my shoulder and your other hand over my mouth.” “Whew, Jesus, I need you here!”

Continually. Constantly. God is not too busy to hear you. He’s not burdened by your continual requests. He says “THIS IS MY WILL FOR YOU, I WANT YOU TO TALK TO ME CONTINUALLY.” That’s the enemy’s voice that tells you that’s too little or foolish to pray about. God says, “honey, bring it all to me, then bring it to me again.”

And finally, verse 18: Give thanks in all circumstances.

Key word here is “in”. You may not be able to thank God FOR all circumstances, because guess what, God doesn’t create all circumstances. Some of our circumstances we screwed up all on our own. Some circumstances are the enemy trying to weasel his way into our lives. You don’t have to thank God for those circumstances, but it is his will for us to continue to thank him IN them.

What can you still thank God for even in the middle of this mess? Sometimes when I struggle to find the good in the circumstances, I thank God for how he IS going to work it all together for good. I can’t see it yet. I can’t even imagine it honestly. But I trust when God says he uses ALL things together for good, that includes this thing right here that I’m dealing with, and I will thank him for what he’s doing that I can’t see.

So there you have it, 3 very clear things for you to do today, on this normal day of life where you dwell within your little life radius, where you repeat the same habits over and over again, where nothing really seems remarkable, but is actually miraculously working so well that it goes unnoticed.

Rejoice always. (Position yourself for God’s grace. Hunt for it and take it home with you!)
Pray continually.
Give thanks in all circumstances.

This is exactly what God wants you to do today. Will you be faithful?

Welcome to another normal day. May you be fully aware of what a treasure this is. May you not ever let this pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. May you hold this while you can, for it may not always be so.

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