Jesus At Work in the Practical Details of Life

In Luke 22: 7-13 Jesus sends his disciples ahead to prepare for the Passover. He tells them to go into Jerusalem and look for a man carrying a jar of water, to follow him to a house and then ask the owner of whatever house he enters, “Where’s the guest room where Jesus can eat the Passover with His disciples?” And then they would be shown a large upper room.

We read that the disciples left and found everything just as Jesus had said.

Reading this story reminded me that Jesus is in charge of the practical details of life.

Just this week we unexpectedly ended up with an hour to spare at the hospital where Riekje was supposed to have a baby! We thought we would use the time to check out the admission fee to the hospital. Turns out the price had gone up tremendously – more than we could afford. Our appointments later that day went badly. So bad was our treatment that we ended up looking for another hospital and found one that was cheaper, has a vastly higher quality of patient care and a gynaecologist that Riekje likes. You may think otherwise, but we saw the hand of Jesus at work, helping us with the practical details of life.

Then what about at Mountainview! We’ve been praying for some administrative help. Well, along comes Heather. Her husband has a job in Spain and she has time that she wants to offer to the church. She’s highly gifted in many, many areas and very relational. God has blessed us with way more than we could asked for. There’s Jesus again, at work, helping us with the practical details of life.

These are some of the practical (hopefully not selfish) prayers that I asked Jesus to help me and the church with this morning

I prayed for an important cheque that has been delayed in the post to arrive. (It arrived two hours later!)

I prayed that our baby would arrive at the right time and that the delivery would be smooth

I prayed that Jesus would send more committed believers to Mountainview. I am praying that somehow, miraculously, we grow to 75 people by the end of this summer

I prayed that Jesus would send Mountainview some more committed musicians and vocalists (base players, drummers, keyboard players, players that we have not even thought of)

I prayed that we would be sent someone to run sound at Mountainview

I prayed for another Christian Associates family and 2 interns to come and work full time with Mountainview and that the family would have a strong gift in Evangelism

I prayed for favour with the school that Mountainview meets at as we approach them with the idea of having back-to-back services with a Spanish church

I prayed for people to join Mountainview who can help us with working with the teens.

I prayed for more people to join our already capable team who work on our kids programme.

I prayed for God’s power to fall on our community. For people to grow deeper with God and others to find God!

I prayed for wisdom to lead Mountainview and to pray fro practical help in areas that I am overlooking even as I write right now

Lots of prayers! Lots more that I could ask. But, above all, asking Jesus to show His power in the practical details of life and as we do build our faith at Mountainview and to turn the hearts of those without faith towards Christ.