It is a cold rainy day and I just returned home from our women’s morning bible study session. As I reflect on our time together and my personal prayer for this study, I am so amazed at the goodness of God and the timeliness of His word for our lives.

I pray that these journal notes encourage your heart.

Ordinary Days

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:2 MSG Version

This morning, I decided it was best to quickly go the grocery store before picking up my children from grandma’s house. Our bible study just ended and I only needed a few things. A 10 minute delay without children but with children, well let’s just say, I didn’t want to maneuver with 2 toddlers in the rain. I found myself quickly deciding what, if anything, was needed for dinner. Just passing thoughts on an ordinary day deciding ordinary things like “whats for dinner”.

On our quiet ride home, I played my monthly book. This month I am listening to a book called, “Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life” by Tish Harrison Warren. It just so happens that this morning I began chapter 5, “Eating Leftovers: Word, Sacrament and Overlooked Nourishment”.

As I listened to the words of the author I could hear the Holy Spirit confirming in my spirit all that I had prayed this morning. I knew God heard my prayers and was using this author to confirm my sentiment. She asked, “Do you remember what you had for breakfast 3 weeks ago on Monday morning?” For most of us it is a FORGOTTEN MEAL.

I have no clue what I made for breakfast that day but whatever it was provided some type of nourishment to our bodies and most likely it contained at least one thing that my toddlers refused to eat. There are thousands and thousands of forgotten meals that brought us to today. I can recall some of my very favorite dinners that I had on a special occasion with my husband. For most of us, only a handful of them are memorable but we eat every single day.

Nourishment for Our Souls

Many times our focus, even in our faith, is that of “experience”. We want memorable encounters, charismatic speakers, and moving worship experiences. It is so easy to be captivated by wonderful worship and powerful preaching but what is it that keeps us Sunday by Sundays?

There will be times when we experience the movement of God in a deep and meaningful way. It is something that will be embedded in our memories forever. It is a memorable “meal”. What about our day-to-day ordinary nourishment? We feed our souls every single day.

Some days we may provide our spiritual body healthy and live giving “meals” directly from the word of God, worship and meaningful prayer time. We feel full, nourished and satisfied.

Other days we may not be doing as well, similar to feeding our physical bodies with junk food – we feed our souls junk thoughts, junk shows, junk music and junk social media scrolling. We may feel full but we do not feel nourished.

Yet, there still may be other days where we engage in the word of God but do not “feel” moved. We feel as though our prayers are routine, our reading is dry and the worship music is just background noise. These days we may not feel moved but we’ve been nourished. It is one of our spiritual forgotten meals.

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What do we do in our season of “forgotten meals“? It can be so easy to become discouraged and think that the time spent nourishing our soul is wasted. When we do not feel “moved” we may believe we are doing something wrong. Do not be discouraged and do not let the lies of enemy dishearten you.

In these times, I want to encourage you to remember your thousands and thousands of forgotten meals. When you ask yourself, what’s for dinner, remember the forgotten meals. Nourishment keeps us going and keeps us healthy.

It may not always be memorable or fun to eat your greens, but your future self will thank you for it. In the same way, a disciplined faith, even when we do not feel “emotionally” moved, is good for us and our future self will thank us.

Paul writes in Romans 2, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him“

Our everyday life is an offering to God. Our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays are an offering to God. Our morning, noon and nights are an offering to God. Our daily nourishment is an offering to God. In the season of “forgotten meals” remember our life is an offering to God and His word is nourishment to our souls. We will one day remember the nourishment of our forgotten meals, in our time of prayer or in our conversations with others. The nourishment will not be wasted and will come back to bless our souls and the souls of others.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

Galatians 6:9-10

May we remain steadfast in our faith, disciplined in our prayers and time dedicated to our savior, Jesus. May our worship reach the thrones of heaven and our hearts always be postured towards the God of the universe. May our ordinary, daily lives be filled with reminders of God’s goodness and His faithfulness. May our “forgotten meals” forever remind us that the Lord Jesus is the true nourishment to our souls.

Many Blessings,

Misty