Consciously recognizing God and thanking Him as the Giver, we enjoy God in His provision of life’s little things. We might also say that we enjoy the little things in God. Saying it either way might prove to be the same thing. Here’s the danger, however: “Enjoy God in the little things” might be the same as “Enjoy the little things in God,” and it might not. It might begin as the same but subtly shift over time.

We live in an age of high drama. Our world clamors for the extraordinary, the spectacular, the next big thing. As the contest for human attention becomes more ruthless, the ordinary rhythms of the quiet life—its “little things”—hardly attract the eyes of a digital vortex conditioned for thrill after thrill. Even in the “analog world” (that boring-sounding term for life offline), we try to dramatize our lives, add some flair, upsell our daily anecdotes, and angle to be the local influencer and center of attention. Some move from one attention hit to another, trying to recast the little things as the dramatic, seemingly big. Whether online or face-to-face, many can be so noisy, pining for and trying to produce the next big story or update, rather than embracing the ordinariness of normal humanity.

As society drifts from the biblical ideal of the quiet life, we find fresh need in Christ to embrace the glory and joy of the ordinary—“little things” such as marriage, family, a walk outside, steady labor and homemaking, and even our daily bread. In Psalm 4, David’s soul brims even though his physical provisions are sparse. He celebrates the joy that the saints have in their God, a happiness that outstrips the gladness of unbelievers even in their best times. He praises God: “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (v. 7).

Observe first that if God is the focus and source of our joy, then our joy can be greater than the world’s even when their little things abound and ours do not. They have bread and wine in abundance? Well and good. We may have bare pantries and empty bottles, but we have God Almighty—so even in our most dire circumstances, our joy surpasses the world’s at its best. But what about when our grain and wine abound and we have it relatively good? Are we then destined to the eventual self-reliance, pride, and idolatry of unbelief? Not if we seek to enjoy life’s little things in God and enjoy God in the little things.

In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul writes that God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy,” and earlier in the letter, he shows us how. Apparently, Ephesus had some ascetic false teachers trying to “forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving” (4:3).

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