Week 12: Day 3

Intro: Hello and welcome to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites - I'm Christie Gilfeather. Each weekday we share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today.

Bible: Today’s reading comes from Daniel chapter 8. It says:

While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, ‘Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.’

As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. ‘Son of man,’ he said to me, ‘understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.’

While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground. Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.

Thoughts: In our passage today, we find that Daniel wants to learn about the meaning of his vision. In order for him to understand, two things happen. He tries, and then unexpectedly, he sleeps. Both of these things are really important for our journey of learning in our lives as Christians and I’m going to briefly tell you why.

In verse 15 the text says ‘I Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it’. The picture we have here is of Daniel wrestling with a really complex and mysterious vision in an effort to understand it. He wants to understand – he wants to wrestle. Like Daniel, sometimes we might find ourselves really wrestling with something. Maybe you’ve heard something in church that you want to understand or have found really challenging. That might look like asking your church leader to recommend something to read or pressing more deeply into the scriptures for a time. This is good – it is good to wrestle and to try to understand and God blesses us in this.

At the same time though, there’s a second action that Daniel does in the passage. He goes to sleep! In total contrast to the trying and the wrestling that we just talked about, Daniel is completely passive here – he is literally unconscious!

Sometimes, God will teach us things in the place where we rest. We don’t need to try or to wrestle, because God will reveal things to us in our stillness. Everything that we understand about God is given to us as a gift by the holy spirit. Even where we’re wrestled, or tried really hard, the fruit is a gift. So whether we are wrestling or resting at this time, let us know deeply that God loves to teach us, and love our desire to learn and he will give us everything we need to grow in knowledge of him.

Silence: Lets pause here for a moment of silence to ask God what he might have to say to us through this passage

Prayer: Loving God, thank you that you meet us in our wrestling and our resting. Thank you that both are a gift and for your kindness in revealing yourself to us in our learning and in our praying. Amen.

Action: Every day on Orbit we give you a simple practical challenge to help you put this passage into action in your life. Here's today's: Are you wrestling or resting at this time? Is there something particular you’re wrestling with, or wanting to know more about? Ask a trusted leader if they can recommend something for you to read or a podcast you could listen to which will help you go deeper in your learning.

Outro: That's it for today's Orbit. Thanks so much for joining us - we'll be back with another reflection tomorrow.