Today’s AMI Quiet Time is written by Claudia Robbie who serves at Journey Church of Atlanta.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Matthew 20:28
Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
For a while, the Lord has been challenging my idea of servanthood and humility. “I’m older, I’m a leader, I disciple these people, I have kids, I’m tired ….” are reasons I give God when I am confronted to serve in a way that I think is beneath my scope. I can get frustrated when others don’t serve, especially when there is a need. But God has been asking me: “Are you the first to serve when there is a need? Are you a servant or a leader?”
I know I am a servant, but in this season, God has been working in my heart and bringing me to another degree of glory where He has freed me from lifelong lies. He is bringing me to repentance of long forgotten sins, and I realize just how much of my time and mind is taken with ME (my anxieties, desires, hopes, boundaries, etc.). But it ceased being about ME when I said yes to God and I am experiencing this next layer now.
He wants a servant’s heart, not just acts of service so I can get some imaginary merit badge. It’s not just in discipleship, administration, teaching, or counseling (my roles and responsibilities as a leader). I am called to be a servant where there is need, in or outside my church, teaching from the front or on my knees scrubbing a toilet, in public or private, whether someone else has a servant heart or not. Because what floors me about Jesus is that He served me to His death when I was His enemy.
What would it do for those I lead if they see me spent to the end for Jesus, not just in the front or at the top but in the lowly and despised things? What would it do for my heart as a leader if I were the first to clean a toilet or take out the trash? Would it keep my heart tender, soft, and humble before God? Maybe a servant’s heart is God’s protection against pride and self sufficiency for me as I lead.
I am not advocating or suggesting doing more to do more. But we should ask ourselves, Is my heart in a posture of humility and servanthood that I can hear God when He whispers that it is my turn to serve and love with the lowliest of things. Am I free enough from my dreams, desires, agendas, and hopes (even in ministry) that I can hear when God says, “I want you to take out the trash today”?
What is God saying to the servant’s heart He is cultivating in you today?
Prayer: In our busy lives, Father, we become deaf to You. We believe it’s about position, responsibilities, and capabilities, but it’s about You reclaiming us. Teach us to be servants in all that we do as we listen for Your leading. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Job 36-37
Today’s AMI Devotional is written by Jin Ha Lee who serves at Grace Covenant Church in Philadelphia. Jin Ha, a CPA, graduated from Drexel University and is getting married this November. Congratulations!
There was a season in my life when I sought advice from many different older brothers and sisters—I would go to this person to get his advice, call this person to get her perspective, and on-and-on. But, I had a problem. In going to many people, I wasn’t really hearing what they were saying, but I was looking for people to give the answer I wanted to hear.
Our family recently moved into a new place—but not without some resistance from our children. In our previous home, our children had developed lots of friendships around the neighborhood. They spent hours and hours with friends engaging in all sorts of fun activities, but in moving into a new home, my kids (particularly our 4th grade son, Nathan) knew that they’d have to start anew the daunting task of making new friends. Soon enough, as our boys began to explore the new neighborhood, they met few other boys who were just as interested in sports, video games, …sports, video games…and more sports and video games. =) That afternoon, Nathan came back home with a big smile on his face and said to me, “Dad, Nick and Tommy are my friends now.” There’s something about good friendships that even children know to value in life.
We live in a world of ideas. Whether at school, work or church, one will most certainly encounter someone expressing their ideas, or express their own. However, one of the many critiques set against this age of ideas, is society’s growing inability to discuss ideas without becoming combative. Timothy Muehlhoff of Biola University once lamented how we now live in, what he calls, the “argument culture.” Interestingly enough, I don’t believe we’ve only recently entered the argument culture. Mankind has been fighting over ideas for quite some time, from current socio-political issues to biblical times. Sometimes debates over ideas has been civil, while others have not. In extreme cases, people have even experienced violence for expressing themselves. In fact, the further back in time one goes, the more violence over ideas one would expect to see. The prophet Jeremiah, for example, was imprisoned and beaten for faithfully expressing the Word of God.
In today’s passage, Jeremiah recounts how King Zedekiah would not listen to the word of God (v. 2). And it wasn’t until Judah was besieged that the king asked Jeremiah to pray to God on their behalf (v. 3). Essentially, only when Zedekiah’s back was against the wall did he turn to God. Christians are no different. We are constantly buffeted by the push and pull of our secular world; and, too often, the pressures can become so great that we ignore our convictions, effectively living as if God wasn’t here. It is only when all the chips are down, like Zedekiah, that we turn to Him in submission. Everyone and everything will (Rom. 11:36). But, we ought to look to God first, rather than waiting for calamity. I pray we ponder on this together daily, reminding one another of Whom we are committed to.
As a teenager
Today and tomorrow we will be talking about intercessory prayer. In order to understand intercessory prayer, we need to first understand who we are. To this end, I want to make a bold claim: we think too lowly of ourselves. I imagine many may react to this statement, thinking, Wait, I am prideful – I actually think too highly of myself. And that is probably true for many of us, including me. I am prideful. But, often our pride causes us to think highly of ourselves in the wrong way—meaning, we think highly of ourselves in comparison to others, according to earthly standards. Our pride leads us to think we are smarter, more athletic, better at our jobs than our co-workers, or better looking than our friends—all earthly things.
When I was a youth pastor, I led a team on a short-term mission trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. For two weeks we partnered with local churches and organizations and helped host several Vacation Bible Schools. One day the pastor we were working with requested our team to do a one-day VBS program for a group of 30 orphaned and abandoned children. When it was time for lunch, each of the children received a small Styrofoam box with rice and one piece of fried chicken—each boxed meal was less than 25 cents.
Upon seeing Serena William’s rage during the U.S. Open Finals, I got a glimpse of what I must look like when I have had those episodes—a huge difference being that William’s meltdown happened before the eyes of the world, while mine happened before my wife and kids. Like Serena, I typically felt that my anger (later rage) had a just cause. But, the Holy Spirit always has my ears, reminding me, first, “man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James 1:20); and second, “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror” (1 Cor. 13:12)—meaning, my anger was in part due to not seeing everything that truly happened. I chose to see only what I wanted to see, so that I could win over my wife and kids. Perhaps that also played a part in Serena’s implosion. But life doesn’t need to be lived out that way—”winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”—instead, we can place compassion and decency above winning, whether in marriage or playing tennis.