EP 192: Why Your Ordinary Days Matter to God
Inside: God is at work in the ordinary moments of life, using them for His glory and to make us more like Christ.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Most of our lives aren’t lived in extraordinary moments. They’re lived in ordinary ones.
We spend our days making meals, unloading the dishwasher, answering emails, paying bills, driving children where they need to be, caring for aging parents, opening our homes to others, cleaning bathrooms, and all the other responsibilities that come with everyday life.
Because these are the things we do day after day, it’s easy to overlook their significance. No one applauds us for changing another load of laundry or preparing another meal, and before long we can begin to think what we’re doing doesn’t really matter.
As I was writing Homemaking Matters, I found myself coming back to this truth again and again. Whether I was writing about hospitality, mentoring other women, resting in Christ’s sufficiency, or learning to choose joy and gratitude, I kept seeing the same theme throughout Scripture: God never views our ordinary days as insignificant.
I know this truth, but I can be quick to forget it. It’s so easy to become focused on the work before me that I lose sight of what God is accomplishing through it.
Yet Scripture tells us something entirely different.
The Lord isn’t only at work in the big moments of our lives. He’s also at work in the ordinary ones. In fact, it’s often in those everyday moments that He’s doing some of His greatest work in us.
Our days matter—not because the work itself is extraordinary, but because we serve an extraordinary God who is using them for His glory and our good.
Listen to the Podcast (17 minutes) or read the post below (21 minutes):
Much of Our Ministry Takes Place at Home
One of the passages that has encouraged me most over the years is Titus 2. It opens with the exhortation to teach sound doctrine, and then in verses 3–5 the apostle Paul walks us through how that is meant to shape our everyday lives. He shows the older women who they are to be before he tells them what they are to teach. Our lives should give weight to our words, and godly teaching should flow from a godly life.
When we hear the word ministry, our minds often go to teaching a Bible study or going on a mission trip. The Lord uses us in those ways, and we should be faithful in every opportunity He gives us. But Titus 2 broadens our understanding of ministry and reminds us that so much of it takes place closer to home.
Paul tells older women to teach younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, kind, and working at home. These aren’t secondary callings until “real ministry” begins; they’re part of God’s beautiful design for women and one of the primary places where our faith is lived out.
Loving our families usually isn’t expressed in grand gestures. More often it’s seen in caring for our homes and praying for our families as we go through our days.
As we do this, we’re putting into practice what Paul teaches in Titus 2. We don’t have to look somewhere else to find ways to honor Christ, because we’re serving Him right where He has us.
Whatever You Do, Do It for the Lord
One passage the Lord has used often in my life is Colossians 3. It reminds me that no part of my day falls outside His care.
Paul writes:
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:17
A few verses later he says:
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Colossians 3:23
Then we hear the same reminder again in 1 Corinthians 10:31:
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
God doesn’t divide our lives into “important” work and “ordinary” work. He says whatever you do, and that includes even cleaning the bathroom!
I know how easy it is to get caught up in checking things off my list or feeling like I’ve had a productive day because I accomplished a lot. But God doesn’t measure faithfulness that way. In the very next verse, Paul says, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24).
Our reward comes from the Lord, not from having all our tasks checked off. Whether I’m making dinner or recording a podcast, I need the reminder that I’m serving Christ.
When I sit down to deal with email, I usually tell myself I don’t have time for this right now, because it can take so long to come up with a response, or it needs more than a quick yes or no answer. I can let emails sit in my drafts for days before I answer just because I don’t want to deal with them. But then I feel a bit convicted, because I need to respond to others in a timely manner and be respectful of them. I want to be faithful in serving the people the Lord has put in my life, including those on the other end of those emails. When I remember who I’m working for, instead of thinking, Do I have to do this again? I can ask, Lord, how can I honor You as I do this today?
Faithful Stewards
Another reminder that has helped me over the years is that everything I have belongs to the Lord.
It’s easy to think of our home as our home and the things in it as our possessions. He’s the One who has provided our home, our family, and the resources we use each day. We are caring for what He has given us.
Paul is talking about himself here when he says, “It is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). But the principle behind this verse reminds me that God hasn’t called me to manage someone else’s life or someone else’s calling. He has called me to be faithful where He has placed me.
God Is at Work in Us
One of the greatest encouragements to me is remembering that the Lord isn’t only accomplishing something through the work He’s given me to do. He’s also accomplishing something in me.
Romans 8:28 is familiar to many of us, but Paul tells us what that “good” is in the very next verse. God’s purpose isn’t to make our lives easier or more comfortable. His purpose is for us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
His good purpose includes all the interruptions we didn’t plan for, like the sleepless nights with little ones, the appointments with aging parents, and the conversations we never expected to have. Not one of these moments is outside His loving care.
The Bible calls this sanctification. Little by little, God is conforming us to the image of His Son. That work doesn’t happen only during our quiet time or while we’re sitting in church on Sunday morning. It often happens as we faithfully go about our days.
When I find myself becoming impatient or grumbling about the work before me, I need to remember the Lord is doing something much bigger than helping me finish my to-do list. He’s using those very moments to make me more like His Son.
When Daily Life Reveals Our Hearts
Those same moments also reveal what’s going on in our hearts.
Most of us don’t wake up planning to be impatient or to complain. Yet it doesn’t take much for those attitudes to show themselves. Sometimes it’s the silliest things that bring out impatience in me, and it’s usually things more than people, like the Wi-Fi going down when I’m in the middle of writing a blog post or the ice maker jamming right before company comes over.
In those moments, I see frustration in my heart because things aren’t happening on my time anymore. The Spirit convicts me and brings me back to Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing,” so I can make things right before the Lord and in my heart.
Romans 12 reminds us to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The Christian life isn’t only about changing our behavior. Little by little, God changes us from the inside out as our minds are renewed by His Word.
Redeeming the Moments God Has Given Us
Tomorrow morning the dishes will still be waiting. There will be meals to prepare, people to care for, and work that needs to be done. By God’s grace we can begin to look at them differently.
I heard a pastor say in a sermon once, “Two things are eternal—God’s Word and people’s souls.”
Instead of letting my mind wander or giving in to grumbling, I can pray while I wash dishes or ask that our home would be a place where Christ is honored as I straighten it before guests arrive. Moments like these become opportunities to “set [our] minds on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2).
Hide God’s Word in your heart as you go about your day. Memorize one verse each week. Listen to Scripture or a sermon while you’re working around the house. Fill your mind with God’s truth, because He uses His Word to renew our minds and shape our hearts.
I’ve found I don’t need hours of uninterrupted time to do this. I need a heart that is looking for opportunities to redeem the moments He has already given me.
Our Purpose Is Found in Christ
Our culture tells us that significance is found in being noticed or accomplishing something big.
I don’t need to look outside the life the Lord has given me to find purpose. My purpose isn’t found in homemaking, and it isn’t found in having a perfectly kept home. It’s found in Christ, and homemaking is one of the places where I have the privilege of loving Him and serving the people He has entrusted to me.
The Lord is using these days for His glory and for your own sanctification. He’s accomplishing far more than you can see this side of eternity.
As Paul Tripp writes:
“If God doesn’t rule your mundane, then He doesn’t rule you. Because that’s where you live.”
I love that reminder because most of life really is lived in those mundane moments.
My prayer, Friend, is that the next time you’re answering another email or cleaning up after dinner, you’ll remember that the Lord is at work. He’s using those moments to bring glory to Himself and to make you more like Christ.
Be faithful where He has placed you today. Jesus is enough—always.
Homemaking Matters
living for god’s glory in the ordinary
