Devotional Time with God

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.

Evangelism is not one of my strongest quality of being a Christian.  I struggle with it every day because I know I’m not a convincing person.  I can’t sell anything.  Sure, I can argue and I can present my case.  But at the end of the day, no one buys it.

But God’s salvation is not for sale.  It’s to be given away.  All it takes is faith.  I know God will give me strength to evangelize, if I do His work honestly and with due diligence.  All God wants is for me to deliver the Good News.  It’s up to God to change the other person’s mind.   It’s up to them if they want to be saved.

I need to take that step to evangelize, while focusing on Jesus as the Lord and Savior.   Christ’s love, grace, and good news have to be shared – no matter how cowardly I feel.

I read Demian Farnworth’s post on “Elevator Pitch Evangelism” with two verses that will come in handy the next time someone asked me what Christianity is about:

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7

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.

How can I start treating other believers like members of my own family?

The Purpose Driven Life, p. 122

We have a couple of friends from a church in San Diego, let’s call them Chris and Robin (for anonymity). Back in early 2000, they were newlyweds, like us, so we got a long very well. We started going to their bible study and they would visit our church on sundays. There was a day when Chris and Robin got into a big fight and she decided to leave out of town without letting him know. He would call me, told us what happened. Yantie and I would drive to his apartment, and tried to help him out by talking to him, and going to the airport to see if she was still there. We stayed with him the rest of the day, prayed with him. We sought updates the weeks after, sharing the pain he was going through, as he felt really abandoned at this point. Eventually Robin would return and they sorted out their issues.

This is what God wanted us to be: a family. When a member of the body is in pain, the body feels it. We felt each other’s pain and we tried to help the healing process. We love Chris and Robin very much. We continue to pray for their well being and God’s grace in their lives. I am glad to be able to call them my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus and the people he makes holy all belong to the same family. That is why he isn’t ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.

Hebrews 2:11 (CEV)