Day 57

Today was an awesome day, I got to sleep in a bit and then not too long after I woke up, I went to the mall with my sister and my mom and then I played golf with my dad. Seems like a short day but I was out from 11-6 and I had a blast spending time with my family and just being home with them all. My brother is coming into town tomorrow so that will add to the fun we are going to have and then Christmas is on Thursday, almost a day away now. I know that as I keep myself occupied with things that are beneficial to me as well as the work of God, I will not fall into sin so easily and I will be able to do the work I have been called to do. When things get tough, I will find a way out and have God guide me where he wants me to go. I am hopefully putting together a recruiting video on Friday (weather permitting) and I hope that goes well because I am not sure where God wants me to be but over this break, that question should be answered for sure. I will know where he is leading me and what exactly he wants me to do.

Day 2 is titled "Rest for the Weary" and the verse from Isaiah 6:8 states, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!" This is pretty much the question that God asks us every single day, especially when we are not following his ways when we know we should be. He says, "Whom shall I send" and he waits for us to answer the call but most of the time it goes unanswered. The missed opportunity you had at lunch, the failed conversation on the field, the big fall in front of your friends when you could have said no or not responded the way you did. We have choices everyday to continue to follow God or not, it is not just a one time decision, it is a daily decision. When we give it all to God, things get easier in the sense that we are sure of our daily decision to follow him and we feel security in him. That is why he provides rest for us; we need someone we can run to who can restore us when we feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. It is just an expression, but when people look to you all the time and you do not know what to do, God is right there asking you to answer the call and to seek him.

You may find this a bit cheesy, but I think that it applies to me and so I am going to use it anyway. Jack Sparrow says in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies that when the time comes and he has the chance to do the right thing, he, "Likes to wave at those moments as they pass by." This is almost exactly how my life is in a literal sense. There are times when I could do the right thing and make the decision to not sin but I do it anyway because my human nature says, "it will not hurt, it is okay because it only affects you" but in reality, my choices can affect tons of people and most of the time they do. It is up to me to take ahold of those opportunities and do what I know in my heart is right. The other time comes when I have the chance to minister to someone and I tell myself that if the time comes that I will do it, but most of the time, the time comes and I just let it go and do not even think twice about the missed opportunity. I know I have said this before, but the call has been made and the question is, are we willing to answer it? I know that I need to, but I have had a hard time doing it up until now and i am going to do what I can to make sure that I do as I have been called.

Since my devotional book only has about one verse a day, I think that I am going to memorize the verse of the day everyday so that when I get to the end, I will be able to see what I remember and see how I am supposed to apply it to life, that way I will be ready to help myself out when the time comes and I can reflect on the things I learned throughout the book and apply it.

Hope that you all have had a great day and that you have done all your Christmas shopping. Have a good night.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson