Week 7: 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 Sarah Yardley. 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 Mark chapter 14, verses 12-16

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

Thoughts:

Every day holds so many little details and decisions. We wake up, brush our teeth, have a bit of breakfast, carry on and make a thousand small decisions. I sometimes forget that Jesus cares about all of the large AND small details of my day. I’ve recently been reading this book by Frank Laubach called Letters to a Modern Mystic, where he speaks about calling Jesus to mind for one second of every minute. Over the years, many of the heroes of faith have cultivated this practice of attentiveness to God’s presence, even in the details that feel a bit ordinary or mundane.

In today’s story, Jesus cares about the little details. He tells his disciples where to go, who will meet them, where to follow him, and then how to ask boldly for a place for Jesus and His disciples to share a meal. This isn’t just any meal; it’s the last meal that Christ will share with His followers before He goes to the cross.

The disciples, having spent three years with Jesus, understand how much he cares about these details, and it says that they went and found things exactly as Jesus had told them. I wonder what it would look like for us to trust Jesus in this way, with the everyday and very ordinary details. I have found that He cares more than I realise about these things.

Often we are looking for the big, flashy, miracle moments, the places in our faith that feel like a significant shift or story happens. Over and over, I find that Jesus cares about the meals with me, the kind of person I am becoming, the time we are sharing together. What would it look like for you to create space for time to listen to Jesus in the ordinary moments of your day?

Pray: Jesus, thank you that you care about every moment of my day. I ask for a deeper trust to believe that you are with me, even in the moments that feel ordinary or a bit boring. I pray that you would show me how to listen to you in days that are distracted or busy. Thank you for your patient love towards me.

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: 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:

What is ONE way you can slow down to pay attention to Jesus today? This might look like deleting an app that’s taking a ton of your time and attention, or forcing yourself to walk slowly and imagine Jesus walking with you. Choose one way to pay attention to the God who is with you today.

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