Our God is anything but routine—anything but boring! He constantly does the unexpected. Even when he announces ahead of time that He is going to act, He does it in such creative, unexpected, and exciting ways that it knocks the socks off everyone who experiences it!
A virgin becoming pregnant?
Really? Well, we didn’t see that coming.
Definitely not boring.
But we get bored with God sometimes, don’t we? Maybe it’s because we like to be in control—to keep things manageable. Maybe we've never known that God could be exciting and "bring the wow!" Maybe all we've ever heard is a lifeless, lacking-in-passion rendition of the good news.
Maybe we get bored because we prioritize the routine over encountering God. Do you know what I mean? God needs to show up at the allotted times and the allotted places we determine, and contain Himself within the designated parameters that are comfortable and convenient for us.
All that sounds pretty boring to me.
But I can’t think of one time in Scripture when God showed up, when His Holy Spirit came in power, or when God sent a messenger—angel or human—and it was normal…expected…routine. No, when God acts, He is anything but boring!
The Scriptures are full of people having stunning encounters with God. I wouldn’t classify any one of them as routine. The Scriptures are also full of unexpected people accomplishing what should be impossible for them as they are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit who breaks them out of the ordinary and plunges them into the “WOW!” No, I can't think of one time in Scripture where God was boring.
He is surprising, dazzling, awe-inspiring, and overwhelming.
He moves people to tears.
His Presence compels people to worship, and sing, and praise, and dance!
His Spirit emboldens and empowers ordinary—even weak and very flawed people—to do His will and speak His truth, making their lives anything but humdrum, mundane, or routine.
And to those who do demand that God remain in the tiny, manageable, predictable box they’ve created for Him, He can even be offensive.
But He’s definitely not boring.
God brings speech to the speechless, sight to the blind, and courage to the faint of heart. God heals and God comforts. God can make animals speak! (Don’t believe me? Go check out Numbers 22:21-39.) He splits seas and silences storms! He empowers men and women to speak in foreign languages they should not know!
He brings dead things back to life, for crying out loud! When is THAT ever boring?
No, our God is not boring.
So if we are bored, then we’re the ones who have taken some missteps somewhere. We don’t need to have turned against God to become bored in our faith and unimpressed with Him. We only need to stop asking Him to do a new and fresh thing in us.
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Today is my forty-sixth birthday. Forty-six times around the sun. And the thing I want to guard against the most in this coming year is becoming complacent or bored in my relationship with God. Each year on my birthday I reflect over the past 365 days. I consider my experiences, my challenges, my responses, and reactions. I take note of where I’ve grown and what I’ve learned—my successes, and even my failures. It’s a fun little journey to take.
Then, I ask God to do a new thing in me. I ask God to expand my boundaries and enlarge my territory. I ask Him to teach me something new, to introduce me to new people and new places. I ask Him to reveal more of Himself to me and to continue to purge me of anything that would breed selfishness or pride and keep me out of His will.
This practice helps me remember to keep asking, keep seeking—to keep diving into the depths with God. It would be so easy for me to coast right into apathy and complacency. I love comfort that much. But what I love more is seeing God at work around me in new and surprising ways. And so I regularly ask God to do a new thing in me, especially as I celebrate another birthday. It's a good way to realign myself with God and His will.
What about you? Are you bored? Has your faith and your relationship with God become a bit hum-drum, stale, passionless, unexciting? If so, I encourage you to be done with that kind of faith. That is not the life we were designed for. We were designed for a life lived in partnership with God with a front-row seat to all His awesomeness.
Pastor and author, Mark Batterson, said, "You cannot be in the presence of God and be bored at the same time. For that matter, you cannot be in the will of God and be bored at the same time."
So, where might you need to realign yourself? Where have you chosen comfort and routine over encountering God? What if you chose to pray, “Do a new thing in me, Lord! Get me out of my routine! Break the monotony! Do a new thing in my family, at my job, within my co-workers, in my community, in my church!” What do you think would happen if you chose to pray that prayer regularly?
Friends, God has so much more to show us. He has created us for a life full of His power and beauty. Do not settle for less. There is nothing on this earth that will fulfill and satisfy you like He will—not even close.
I hope you’ll join me in asking for this. May each of our lives be filled with joy and awe as we watch God do just what we’ve asked Him to do. And may He knock our socks off with HOW He will go about it!
"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" ~Isaiah 43:19
