Week 17: Day 2

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 Lucy Rae. 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 Colossians 4:2-3 from The Message translation:

Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. Don’t forget to pray for us, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ, even while I’m locked up in this jail. Pray that every time I open my mouth, I’ll be able to make Christ plain as day to them.

Thoughts: Today and tomorrow we will look at two ways we can have conversation - firstly with God. Directionally being vertical conversation. Not implying that God is floating on the clouds but that he is greater and above me so vertically raising by gaze, eyes to Him when I speak.

Is anyone else astounded by how Paul responds to being imprisoned? I’m constantly amazed by his faith and that he is so ready to share the gospel and find different opportunities for it - whilst in prison.

The last few years have been mayhem as we swap out one breaking news headline for another and I have really struggled to pray at times. I’ve also found it pretty tricky to explain my faith in these times too - I guess on Instagram you can’t ask how you’ve found it. But this is exactly what Paul has been saying to do.

In these verses Paul asks us to do 3 things that I find super helpful in my faith - which I have nicknamed PAT.

• Pray
• Stay Alert
• Remain Thankful

Why don’t we do this together today. In a second, we are going to pray but what does it mean to stay alert or remain thankful?

To stay alert - to be aware of your surroundings and be present in that moment to the people you’re with and around, maybe their emotions and what they’re going through. And then even wider maybe things happening in your city or your town and world that we have often found out so quickly through breaking news or instagram etc. And how we are responding to the moment.

To remain thankful - Psalm 9:1 reads I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. Reflecting on the small and big things that we can be thankful for is so good for our faith. It lifts our eyes again and gives us perspective as we look to our consistent faithful father that we are able to be in relationship with. In the version we read it says eyes wide open to gratitude - eyes wide open, ever responsive and eager to find ways to be thankful.

Let’s respond to this in prayer and you can try out PAT today.

Silence: There's now just a few moments of silence for you to pray, reflect on these ideas, or simply sit and be still.

Action: One final thing before we sign off for the day - Paul asks for them to pray for him so that every time he opens his mouth, he will be able to make Christ as plain as day to those he is around. I waffle and talk around things so often that I never quite get to the point or describe things how I mean. Why don’t you try today to write out how you would describe Jesus to a friend. Then the next time you have the opportunity it might be easier!

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