When I have days or weeks that leave me feeling like I fell short in too many ways or that I’m not as close to Christ as I want to be, it’s helpful for me to take a look at the ways He shows up in my life.
Christ shows up in our lives because He loves us and has sacrificed for us. His goal is to help us come to Him. He stays with us always, asking us to rely on Him. Looking for how He shows up in our lives helps us recognize His love and awareness of us. It helps us see that we matter to Him, even when we fall short or don’t do everything we should.
I don’t know about you, but that’s something I need to be reminded of every day.
With that in mind, here are a few ways I saw Christ in my life during 2020. Hopefully, this list will help you think of ways Christ has also shown up in your life as well.
3 Ways Christ Showed Up in My Life Last Year
1. Christ Filled the Year With Returns
One of the best ways I saw Christ in my life this year was in returns. 2020 was a year full of returns for me. I returned to the Philippines for the first time since my mission. My sister returned home from her mission and brought a return of hysterical laughter with her.
But the returns weren’t all physical. The returns also were spiritual, such as returning to deeper scripture study and to family prayer.
Most importantly, Christ offered me the chance to return to Him. That wasn’t a one-time thing, and it wasn’t a major change in my life. But returning in little ways over and over helped me build a stronger trust in Him. I could return to Him at any moment to pray, to ask for strength, and to seek answers.
We all know that 2020 had its challenges, but those challenges gave each of us plenty of opportunities to turn to Christ. The best part is that we still can turn to Him. He tells us over and over in the scriptures that He has not abandoned us, that He will still show us kindness, and that we are His. The opportunity to return to Him is never gone, and we always have a reason to return to Him.
2. Christ Directed My Writing
There are few things in this world that show me the hand of the Lord in my life the way writing does. For some reason, when nothing makes sense, when I’m tired, when I just don’t know what to do, sitting down to write allows Christ to enter in and speak to me through the words that I place on the page.
I don’t know how many times, especially when writing the articles for this blog, I’ve finished writing and realized that nothing I wrote was really me talking. Sure, it still required my efforts and thoughts, but the end result is not something I could have ever come up with alone. It came from our Savior.
Christ showing up for me this way has also helped me understand just how much He loves each of you. He knows what you’re struggling with, what you need, and He uses articles like these to reach you and help you. Trust me when I say that if it were all up to me, these articles wouldn’t be written. Coming up with topics is not an easy thing. But every time I sit down to write one of these articles, Christ steps in to direct me to the topics that are needed because He knows you, all of you, who will read these words.
For me, writing has become a sacred time. That direction from my Savior and Father is invaluable. For you, there might be other ways that you feel directed by the Savior. Other ways you receive revelation. Those are all ways that Christ shows up in your life.
3. Christ Gave Me Peace in a Chaotic World
I can’t count the number of times Christ has shown up when the world has become so upsetting or dark or confusing. It’s amazing to me how He can enter into a situation that ought to be utterly painful and turn it into something strengthening or beautiful.
Christ has this ability to bring peace into moments where peace should seemingly never exist – at the loss of a loved one, during increasing unrest in the world, after we’ve sinned. I don’t understand how He does it, but I don’t care that I don’t understand because I do know that His peace has come and strengthened me in times when I thought that peace wasn’t possible. The “how” of it really doesn’t matter.
This is probably the most meaningful way I’ve seen Christ in my life this past year and throughout my life. Peace is a hard-to-find commodity if you aren’t looking to Christ for it, but with Him, peace is perpetual. And when the world around us is hard to handle, He is always reliable.
Remember that He told us,
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28, KJV
We can each have His peace when we are with Him. That’s all it takes – coming to Him. Inviting Him in. And when we do, Christ eagerly gives us peace.
How is He Showing Up in Your Life?
So how did you see Christ in your life last year? How did He enter into your home and family? And where have you seen Him today?
I think it’s so important to learn to recognize our Savior as He enters into our lives and hearts. We need to recognize Him in every day so that when we see Him face to face, we will know Him as our Shepherd.
I’ve recently started writing down just one way I’ve seen Him at the end of each day. And I’d like to invite you to join me. I’ve created this little worksheet to help you write down how you saw Christ last year and how you see Him each day of this coming week. (And yes, it’s free to download right away. Just click the button below the image!)
Whether you use this worksheet or not, I hope you’ll pause this week to consider a little more where you see Christ showing up for you. He gives us so much, and each time I recognize His hand, I realize a little more just how blessed I am to know Him. I promise you will feel that love and peace from Him as well.
Seeking Christ 
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