Did the Holidays Derail Your Devotional Life?

Recovering from Vacation

I love the holidays. I love the decorations, the reminders of Christ’s birth, the lights, the travel, the food, family and friends.

The problem is, I get out of my routine.  In fact, this holiday season was no different from any other vacation. I found it hard to take time every day to truly shut everything out and be with Jesus.

Now I’m home, but it’s surprisingly difficult to get back into my normal routine.  I want to sit at Jesus’ feet but find myself restless and more easily distracted than before the Christmas break.

Somehow the Christmas season, when my focus should be on Jesus Christ, has come between me and Jesus instead.

I was too busy with other things. Too distracted.

I am not the first to experience this, however. Mary and Joseph did the same when they left Jesus in Jerusalem after the Passover.

They were so involved with the travel details and visiting with family and friends that they didn’t notice that Jesus wasn’t with them as they left the city.  They traveled a full day before they realized what had happened.

Then, it took them 3 days to find Him again.

In the same way, it has taken time to re-establish my relationship with God.

Of course, the devil is working hard to keep me distracted, to fill my time with other things. And if that doesn’t work, he throws a guilt trip on me for not being more faithful to God while on vacation.  He inspires and feeds all kinds of negative self-talk.

The good news is that Jesus never left me. He hasn’t given up.

He’s more interested in re-establishing our connection than I am, evidenced by His willingness to die for me long before I was ever born.

He is just waiting for me to once again make my time with Him my top priority.

Waiting for me to ask Him to help me shut out all the distractions and tune my ear to hear His voice again.

Waiting for me to “be still and know that He is God.”

Waiting for me to read His Word and talk to Him about what I am reading, about my life, about every little thing, because He cares for me.

And as for the devil’s accusations and the negative self-talk, I am claiming James 4:7-8:

Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

I can stop bemoaning the loss and start strengthening what I have.  Or as Paul says,

One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:14 NKJV

So, if the season interrupted your devotional life, don’t be discouraged, don’t give up.  Ask Him for help and begin again.

He’s waiting for you too!

 

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