Including God in Everything

Posted by: Patrick Nugent, Business Development Associate | Monday, November 10th, 2025 (12:00am)

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.—Psalm 139:7-10

For 40 years of my life, I didn’t include God in anything. I didn’t know God, and I didn’t have any kind of relationship with Him. When things went wrong, I would push and push to try to solve everything on my own. There were times I was mildly successful in getting through it, but the older I got the more the issues started to overwhelm me.

Then, in 2019, I started walking with Jesus and developing a relationship with God. Problems solved, right?

Confession time. Even now when things go wrong in my life, including God in the process of working toward a solution isn’t always my first response. After 40 years of doing things without Him, I find when life gets hard my brain falls back into old patterns. My reactions can be driven by my emotions, which often point me to outside comforts—like Amazon or ice cream—for rescue.

What I’ve learned is that God isn’t the default for me during the challenging times, because He isn’t the default for me ALL THE TIME. Maybe you’re like me, finding yourself looking to the wrong things when times get difficult, or maybe you are the exact opposite; when things go wrong you pray to God, but you forget to include Him when life is running smoothly.

God is with us, all the time. God is good, all the time. I pray He is included when you attend church services on Sundays or Wednesday evenings, but is he also included in the rest of your week? I hear from the hunters in my life that their church is their deer blind, or from the runners, church is when they are on a run. Those things are great if you are intentionally including God in them by praying, meditating on Bible verses, or engaging in some kind of worship while you’re doing it. But if not, is God really a part of it?

For me, I have to be very conscious and intentional about including Him.The first time I felt convicted of this was during the pandemic several years ago. It wasn’t a groundbreaking conviction that shattered my soul, it was simply a seed in my heart that outside church I wasn’t including God enough. So, I started praying out loud when I washed my hands. Covid-19 had us washing our hands every two and half seconds, and I figured there was no better way to include God then talking to Him while engaging in the things I was already doing.

Then I started to listen to Matthew five, six, and seven every night as I prepared for bed. Writing Jesus’ words on my heart before I went to sleep. These little changes brought several benefits that I didn’t predict. First, I was able to truly quote Jesus when talking to friends, family, or students. It brought better sleep as I laid down imagining myself in the arms of the Savior. It also ingrained a habit of including Him in a part of my day.

So while my brain’s default is still to look to other things in times of trouble, by finding ways to engage with God through daily life is helping me to slowly override it. I am getting better, but of course, I still have a lot of work to do. However, Psalm 139 reminds me that no matter how many times I may come up short, God is always there... hand outstretched and waiting. And that gives me the courage to keep trying again tomorrow.