Mark 1:14-20

Be Still: In this quiet moment, Lord, I look to you. Quiet my mind and calm my heart. Let your presence fill this space and your Spirit shape my thoughts. Amen

Read: Mark 1:14-20

‘The time has come,” he said. 'The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!' (v15)

Encounter: The Kingdom Is Near. 

There are moments you expect, and then there are those that take your breath away – even though you saw them coming.

Recently, both my son and his wife, and my daughter and her husband, welcomed children into the world. For my son and his wife, it was twins – a double joy none of us anticipated, but one that expanded our hearts in unexpected ways.

For months, we watched their families prepare: quiet anticipation, little adjustments, lists and prayers. And then the arrivals came – crying, beautiful, vulnerable. The kind of special moment that changes everything.

Mark’s Gospel opens with that kind of arrival. Jesus doesn’t ease into his ministry – he declares it: 'The time has come.' This is Kairos, God’s timing breaking into ours. The kingdom is not distant or abstract—it’s near. Present. Disruptive. Tender.

Like those grandchildren, the kingdom arrives not as a theory but as something that inhabits rooms and reshapes routines. Jesus offers two invitations:

• Repent: let go of what no longer fits. Make space.

• Believe: not simply in principle, but in promise. Trust that the new arrival is good, even if it stretches you.

To welcome new life is to realign, surrender, and expand. That’s the rhythm of the kingdom, too.

Apply: Perhaps you sense that something from God is being born in your context – a fresh season of ministry, a new relationship, a bold idea that’s ready to breathe. Like the stretch of a home preparing for a baby or two, we’re asked to release control, rearrange priorities, and make room. This nearness of God is rarely tidy, and never passive. It arrives in our calendars and conversations, nudging us to trust more deeply and turn to him more fully. And just as welcoming grandchildren changed everything in our family – space, rhythms, expectations – so the kingdom alters our inner landscape. We are invited not simply to admire it, but to inhabit it. Actively. Joyfully. And with hearts ready to be expanded.

Devote: Jesus, help me welcome your kingdom as new life, unexpected, disruptive, and full of joy.