Devotional Time with God

I’ve made progress before in getting my spiritual life fixed up (with God’s help), and resisted temptations to revert back to my old selfish and angry self.  But sometimes, the devil got a hold of me.  Sometimes I’m vulnerable.  Sometimes I relapse.

The reasons I relapse are due to the following:

I revert back to my own willpower.  God is in control of my life, but sometimes I want to take the wheel back and steer my life in the direction I want.  Bad Idea.  If it’s not His will, I won’t.  I can’t be so foolish to go at it with my own power. (Galatians 3:3)

I ignore the need the exercises for recovery.  That includes:

1. Admitting I need Good
2. Acknowledging God has the power to change me
3. Making commitment to let Christ control and care for me
4. Examining myself openly and honestly and then confessing my faults,
5. Submitting to the changes God wants to make in me.
6. Repairing relationships.

I don’t use my support.  The bible says, in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, I need others to help me.  I need that special someone to help me go through my issues.  I need him (or them) there to listen and counsel me.

I became prideful.  For me, this is a difficult urge to fight.  After years of bad habit, I couldn’t just throw it out overnight.  It’ll take a lot of effort on my part to get over this weakness.  Being prideful will prevent me from seeking help. As the song said,

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will life you up.

James 4:10

I’ve recently started to ride my bicycle, every other day, to stay fit and build up my endurance.  I realize my body’s endurance is not going to be strengthen in a matter of days, or even weeks.  It’s going to take months of constant trying!

I feel the same way about my spiritual endurance.  There are days when I’ve felt the growth in my walk with God.  But what I really should be doing is to step it up, and run with God!  Increase the intensity, once in a while.

Growth comes in spurts.

Nevertheless, it’s still a long run.  God promised me the prize of eternal salvation, and perfection in heaven.  To get there, I must persist.  I must not be discouraged, nor be put off.

God’s marathon is worth living!

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Philippians 3:12-14

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

We are all selfish, by nature. It takes a lot discipline, love, and God’s grace to be kind, sharing, and helpful person.  I thank God every day I’m able to teach my daughter how to listen and share with her friends.  I try to teach her to have awareness of others around her, including towards the adults.  She needs to be aware of other people’s troubles and problems.

She’s a very strong willed child and have short attention span, so I struggle with teaching her to listen attentively.  I say my breath prayers all the time to keep me calm and patient.  Sometimes, I lose my temper, and it’s important I show her that I’m humble to ask for forgiveness.

But all in all, it’s worth the trouble.  I love my daughter so much that I’ll sacrifice my time and effort to teach her this virtue.  God wants to help me to build her up, just as He does to me.

Lord, it’s not easy, going against my nature, to think about other people.  We are all selfish, and always think about ourselves.  Help me deal with this daily struggle.  Help me to help others, especially my daughter, to become a builder of relationships, an instrument of kindness, and a foundation based on Jesus’ teachings and laws.  Thank you for the life you’ve given us.  Amen.

There are many motivations when it comes to “serve” someone.  There’s the obvious one: money – straight up give me dollar bills for the value I gave you.  There’s to impress another person/people – I want to be known and famous.

And then there’s serving because of genuine love.

The bible says:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Romans 12:9

The sincerity of love will bring out the need to serve others.  That’s what God wired us to do.  That’s my purpose.  As a father, I’m here to serve the needs of my wife and kid.  In my small group, I’m here to serve my fellow Christians.  In my community, I’m here to help my neighbors.  In this world, I’m here to be a good citizen.

I must serve another with LOVE!

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Galatians 5:13

One of my worse personality flaw is my quickness to anger.  I was brought up in a realtively dysfunctional family, and my parents are not readily there to guide me in the ways of patience and humility.  They were not Christians back when I was growing up.   We are Christians now and we’ve been taught many times to keep our angry words and thoughts at bay.  The bible says:

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

James 1:19-20

God certainly doesn’t want me to be angry at another, let alone antagonize others.  I must first listen to God, listen to others, and listen to my own heart.  I need to let the spirit of God guide me.  The fruits of the spirit is love, gentleness, patience, and self-control.  It’s what I have to attain to deal with my anger issues.

Thank you, Lord, for filling my heart and mind with your holy spirit.  You know how many times I had burst in anger, being disrepectful, and hurtful to others.  Please forgive me, Lord.  Your kindness and patience towards me exemplifies what I have to do to others.  Guide me, as always.  Fill my heart with gentleness.  Give me the strength to gain self-control.  Provide me the gift of discernment and quick thinking to know the difference between right and wrong.  Let your words flow in me, and in all of us.  Amen.

I’ve often wondered, how many times have I ever been in control of my mind?  What have I been thinking?  Why do I think the way I do?  It’s often an instinct and purely involuntary.  It’s also not pretty.  With the images I see on TV, the words I hear on the radio, and the actions I observe on others, my mind can go wild.  The world is too quick to feed me with the wrong ideas.  People are just too eager to get into their vices, and bring others along with them.   The mind is the start of guilty pleasures.

A guilty pleasure is often used to described liking something that’s negative.  My example would be enjoying a bad movie, looking at dirty pictures, or listening to gossips.  All devoid of value.  This is the easiest way the devil gets to me.  With the Internet, where sinful materials become so much easier to obtain, it’s so easy to stumble this way.  When my mind is polluted, that’s when I do things wrong.

I need my mind to resolve conflicts, make decisions, get creative, and plan for the future.   I must guard myself against all evil thoughts.  I shall not let my guilty pleasures get the best out of me.

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Galatians 5:5-6

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

When will I take the time to write down my answers to life’s five great questions? When will I put my purpose on paper?

The Purpose Driven Life, p. 319

I will write down my purpose on “paper” now in this blog.

1. What will be the center of my life?
   I thought about my family, then my career. But they are actually my secondary reasons, because Jesus must be first in my life since he is the alpha and omega – the beginning and the end. I started in this world by God’s creation. At the end, He wants me to fulfill His purpose. God is the one I turn to when I have troubles with my family and career. I report to a higher authority.
2. What will be the character of my life?
   The ultimate Jesus-like characters are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I must strive to be all of those and maintain those characteristics at all time. Not an easy task. I struggle with every single one of those, every day. I will have to get these characters carved out on a plaque and display them prominently in my house to remind myself daily.
3. What will be the contribution of my life?
   I must also be a helping hand to my community and my workplace. Helping others is one of my purpose. God gave my abilities to be used to help others.
4. What will be the communication of my life?
   I have my testimonies. I must share them with everyone and lead them to Jesus. I must remember the experiences when I depend on God for resolution. God is good, and people must know that.
5. What will be the community of my life?
   I must be involved in the church and my small group. It’s my fellowship with them. I must seek discipleship and accountability. I can not be a bench warmer at church to merely just simmer, sit, and sour. I must be a functioning member of the body of Christ.

This is my list of things to do. My first draft of my mission statement:

My life purpose is to use my abilities to serve others, be a functioning body of Christ, share my testimonies, develop Jesus’ character quality, and have God as the center of my life!

This statement will be my purpose statement, as I lead my generation for the glory of God.

Which of the six characteristics of real servants offers the greatest challenge to me?

The Purpose Driven Life, p. 264

The characteristics list is:

1. Availability
2. Attention to Needs
3. Do the best of their abilities
4. Equal dedication
5. Faithful to their ministries
6. Low profile

Currently my biggest challenge is making myself available. Perhaps I’m keeping myself too busy at work and home. Or perhaps I’m always waiting for an opportunity to arise. That’s actually my 2nd challenge, not being sensitive enough to figure out the needs of others. I’m always focused on the needs of someone higher up than me (and I don’t mean God). I should continue to look around and be aware of the needs of other believers, my peers, neighbours, and even strangers! The bible says in Galatians 3:10 (NIV):

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

As the need arises, I must take the opportunity to help. My struggle is when it’s inconvenient, it’s going to stop me from serving.  Saddleback Church is 21 miles from my house and $10 toll fees (both ways).  I’ve chosen this church because of its great leaders and wonderful teaching. Now I realize “sacrifices” has to be made to make myself available to serve. I know God will use me to serve Him and I will be available when He calls.

Lord, please give me the ears to listen to your calling, and the heart to serve you with all of my mind and strength. Amen.

What Christlike character quality can I develop by defeating the most common temptation I face?

The Purpose Driven Life, p. 208

I am just like any other man out there, the temptation storm is always raging within me. I would be driving along the road, noticed people would do stupid things with their cars, and I would be tempted to get angry and curse. I would be browsing the internet, sometimes pornographic images would appear, and then tempted to look and thought about it. I would have some free time, and my first thought to do something useless and ignore the need to meditate on God’ s word.

God promises that if I let the Holy Spirit rule my thoughts and actions, I will receive an antidote for temptation.  I will see the results in my life, as it is written in Galatians 5:23-24 (NIV):

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I must take the opportunity to do good, instead of evil. I must not let the temptations lead me away from focusing on Jesus and His character.

What one step can I take today to connect with another believer at a more genuine, heart-to-heart level?

The Purpose Driven Life, p. 144

This is a tough question. I don’t know if it’s my upbringing or my personality, but I am basically a shy person. I like to keep my secrets to myself, and that includes, unfortunately, my shame and regrets. Part of it maybe through my experience with friends who let me down before. Part of it maybe cultural, being an Asian I’m always taught to be closed minded sometimes. Part of it maybe through my family, who taught me to be the strong one and always be able to support myself.

Then Jesus said in Galatian 6:2 (NLT)

Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

For me, it’s tougher to share my troubles. But God wants me to share it with others. How do I do that when I don’t know my small group friends that well? Can I really trust them? I tell my troubles to my wife; Is that enough? Maybe what God wants is that I have more than one perspective to my troubles, so I may get more than one solution.

To obey God, I plan to build a relationship with select group of people that I can trust and share with. It will take trial and error, but with God’s help, I will succeed, and I know this because God is always with me during my trials.

As a side note, in Lord of the Rings trilogy movies, the fellowship of the ring comprises of a few characters on a quest to destroy the Ring. In particular, the hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are close friends. They share the same goals, help each other, and pretty much go through hell together. The best representation of their fellowship is in Return of the King, when Frodo is leaving. The emotions are at the all time high and everyone has that feeling the fellowship just isn’t the same without Frodo. To me, that’s the ultimate proof of a fellowship done right.