Monday, Dec. 12 – James Hobson

Week 3: Joy
Today’s Scripture:
Psalm 44
Luke 22:47-53

Psalm 44:6: For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. 8 In God we boast continually and we will give thanks to him forever.

Today I have to be in the office at 9:00. So… hmm, that means I have to wake up around 8:00, take a shower, fix lunch and have my quiet time. No wait… I forgot I have to plan for my CBS Class. So that means get up at 7:00 then …figure out the rest.

I got up at 7:00, prepared for class, took my shower, packed my lunch and was off to work. I forgot my quiet time, but that’s okay… I can pray on the way to work… plus I can make it up tonight, and we have staff devotions! Who really needs a quiet time anyway? I read a page of a devotional, I think good thoughts and then I live like a Christian… big whoop. I digress.

After work was lunch. After lunch was class. After class was fixing a meal and then eating dinner at the CDH house. After dinner well… really who actually does work after dinner anyway? Then there is grading papers, ISP’s and book reports. Call my girlfriend and… woah its 11:30! Well let me read some of John.

Psalm 44:6: For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. My boast is in God.

In this season of looking back to the birth of Jesus and forward to the second coming of Christ, I have found myself really struggling in my quiet times. For probably the second time in my life, I have really allowed those Quiet times to be a burden and not a joy. Reading scripture and thinking good thoughts were… well kind of bland. They really didn’t seam to help. They were a waste of my time.

This morning was still a struggle between finishing some much needed work and finding some time to spend with God. I can’t help but wonder if God is calling me deeper in my time with him? I cant help but feel the compulsion to seek God for more than a broken 15 minutes while eating cereal in the morning. I can’t help but feel the call to focus more on Heaven than life here on earth. I cant help but notice a difference in my spirit man and my physical body when I Study the scriptures until I am fuifilled verses when I brush through personal time with the Lord.

Lord. In this season help me not “bank” on the fact that I am saved or trust in my spiritual experiences (my bow) from my past to get me through today. Let me rest in you today… intentionally… today! For I will not boast in me, but in you alone! Lord I will boast in you alone. Lord during this season I pray that my eyes can stay fixed on you and my joy would be complete in you and Joy in you would give me strength. Amen.

-JH