Devotional Time with God

At Saddleback Church, we’re starting a new series called 40 Days of Love.  It’s a study of how we, as Christians, must learn to love, in any situation, at any time.  Key verse is:

Let everything you do, be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14

The bible says, EVERYTHING.  In any event.  With anyone.  Even when I don’t feel like it.   In fact, when I’m not feeling particularly loving is when I’m suppose to ask God for guidance and correction.  God loves me for who I am.  He loves everybody, even the ones who have gone astray.  God is love and He makes me as His image, so it’s only natural that I’m also loving.  The practice of love is to prepare for heaven.

So why is it sometimes difficult for me to love others?  My ego and pride have a lot to do with it.  People have a tendency to be un-loving.  That’s the problem.  What must I do to overcome this?  First I have to know what love is.

1. Love is a choice and commitment.
2. Love is action, not just emotion.
3. Love is a skill I can learn.

Knowing this, then I must become good with love and improve my relationship with others.  It can be done.

1. I must commit to growing spiritually.  Maturity is key.
2. I can learn from how Jesus loves.  He’s the perfect role model for love.
3. I must practice the skill.   It’s not easy, but I can try, daily.
4. I have to develop the habit.   In this 40 days study, I can learn to be good in love.
5. I must trust God to help.  God’s love is abundant and everlasting, and I must let His love flow through me.

I’m ready, God, to love this world and all of its shortcomings.   Please help me!

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

Phillipians 1:9-11

This weekend’s sermon by Pastor Rick and Tom Holladay is a very important one to me. It deals with money. It’s always been a problem in our family when it comes to dealing with the issues relating to money. It’s a cause for division, cause for arguments, cause for insecurities, cause of pain. In the message, the lack of money, or being in debt, is the focus of his sermon. God has a lot to say about managing my money. First and foremost, I must look to God when I have issues with money. I must trust God to provide for my needs. He gave me everything, in the first place, to glorify His name, as written in Romans 11:36

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever!

Then Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

God will meet all of my needs! Not wants, not desires, not indulgence. Needs! He never lets me astray. He never lets me down. If He does take things away from me, it’s because He’s testing my character.

I have to ask myself: who should I look for to get more money? Everything on this earth belongs to God. It’s not by my own talent or luck that I get more money. It all comes from God because it’s His to give in the first place. He is trusting His riches on earth to me so I may use it to help others. Money is a tool to do good.  As long as I use money to do God’s work, He will always provide for me.

Since God knows what is best, in what areas of my life do I need to trust him most?

The Purpose Driven Life, p. 76

As a new parent, I’m always thinking how my daughter, Kaitlyn, is going to grow up. Is she going to go private or public school? Will she grow up to be a kind and strong person? Will she honour us at all times? Will she marry the right man? There are so many questions, they become worrisome.

I know God sees me as His child. He is happy that I’m His creation. He takes pleasure when I listen, talk, and worship Him. He wants me to be who I am. What I have to do is simply love God and He will love me back. This is what I expect from my daughter: we unconditionally love her and we desire her love in return. God knows what’s best for us. This is what I trust God will work on our lives.

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

What has happened to me recently that I now realize was a test from God? What are the greatest matters God has entrusted to me?

The Purpose Driven Life, P.46

As I blogged earlier, God’s test for me, that made a major impact on my life, was about money during my unemployment months. I was worried what was going to happen to Yantie and I. We were also uncertain about staying in the US because we did not have a green card yet. God certainly made it a long and agonizing few months. However, my God is a good God. He promised as written in 1 Corinthian 10:13 (NIV):

And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

God eased the burden by giving Yantie a job that supplemented the unemployment checks. Later, God provided me with a job that enabled us to continue our green card process — and finally obtained our US Permanent Resident status! He had tested us and we endured it as best as we could. My God is a fair and loving God. From this lesson, I am also striving to step out of my comfort zone and expand my horizons. Jesus said, as written in Luke 12:48b (NIV):

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

I have now been given a daughter to raise, a bigger house to maintain, and more responsibilities at the office, just to name a few. God has taught me to endure the troubles in my life. God wants me to pass because He wants to entrust more stuff to me. He wants me to grow here, preparing me for the eternal life in heaven.

I was listening to one of my old CD in the car this morning, and I heard a very familiar tune from Maranatha 30 Years of Hope CD called “You’re Worthy of My Praise”. I reminded me of a time, in late 2001, I was in an unfortunate situation where I was out of a job for a few months. The support from my church and family were tremendous, but it was still a test of our faith in God. Pastor Greg in San Diego gave my wife and I, a scripture, Hebrew 11:1 which simply said,

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Having faith in God will give us hope for the future. Sure, we still have our worries, we are only human, but Jesus has never let us down. We kept believing God will give us something good. In May 2002, I received the baffling call from my current employer: they were offering me a position with an increase in salary! We couldn’t be any more excited and the first thing I did was to play the Maranatha song and gave praises to God. That was one of the significant turning point of our lives, the one that we will never forget.

I will give you all my worship.
I will give you all my praise.
You alone, I long to worship.
You alone are worthy of my praise.

– Maranatha Singers, “You’re worthy of my praise”