The Silence Between
OPENING PRAYER:
Holy Spirit, meet me in the uncomfortable space between loss and hope. Teach me what it means to trust when I cannot see, to believe when everything looks finished.
"The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 'Sir,' they said, 'we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, "After three days I will rise again." So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.' 'Take a guard,' Pilate answered. 'Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.' So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard." Matthew 27:62-66 (NIV)
Saturday, the day after Jesus died, gets almost no attention in Scripture, yet it's the day that most mirrors our human experience. While the religious leaders were securing the tomb, the disciples were hiding, grieving, and trying to make sense of shattered dreams. This passage shows us that even Jesus' enemies remembered His promise of resurrection, while His followers seemed to have forgotten it entirely.
REFLECT:
I wonder what that Saturday felt like for the disciples. Everything they'd believed in was dead and buried. The man they thought would rescue Israel was sealed in a tomb with Roman guards standing watch. Their master plan had collapsed. Peter, who had walked on water, was probably replaying his denial over and over. Mary Magdalene, who had been freed from demons, was facing a future without the one who had saved her. Thomas was likely thinking, "I knew this was too good to be true."
Here's what moves me about this forgotten day: God was working in the silence. While it looked like death had won, resurrection was already in motion. The disciples couldn't see it. They were living in the fog, in the storm, with no clarity about what came next. But their inability to see God's plan didn't stop God's plan from unfolding. Sometimes the most important work God does happens in the waiting, in the Saturday between crucifixion and resurrection, when we can't see anything changing but everything is about to change. The disciples didn't know that Sunday was coming. But Sunday was coming whether they believed it or not.
I WILL STATEMENT:
I will trust Jesus with my next step, even when it's foggy.
Identify one area of your life that feels like "Saturday", where you're waiting, where God seems silent, where you can't see what He's doing. Instead of trying to fix it or figure it out, practice simply saying, "Jesus, I trust You're working even when I can't see it." Say it out loud once every hour for the rest of the day. Let it become your anchor in the fog.
CLOSING PRAYER:
I confess that waiting is hard for me. I want clarity, answers, and resolution. But You're teaching me that faith means trusting You in the silence, believing You're working even when I see no evidence. Give me the courage to rest in Your timing, knowing that resurrection is always coming, even when all I can see is the tomb.
PRAYER REQUEST:
Share your prayer request and pray for others.