Today’s AMI QT Devotional is written by Jonathan Cho. Jonathan recently graduated from Emory University in 2017. He currently serves as an intern at Journey Church of Atlanta and specifically works with the college leaders of the church.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Genesis 28:1-2;6-9
Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother…6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,”7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, 9 Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.
A friend once asked me, “Who did you make happy today? Why did you make them happy?” As I attempted a response, I realized it quickly became a list of who I want to please. When I got to the second question, I realized just how much their opinion of me shaped and defined my principles and values. I found myself stuck in the same cycle of the family in this passage.
Esau, wanting to please his father to get blessing, marries Ishmael’s daughter. Isaac, wanting to placate Rebekah’s grief over Jacob possibly marrying Hittites, sends Jacob away so he would not marry a Canaanite woman. Rebekah, favoring Jacob, only considers his well-being. This series of impulse reactions reveal the danger of living reactively. Wanting to please someone— especially a loved one—can be a beautiful thing, for it demonstrates consideration, compassion, and care. But it can often become distorted into being an idol that leads to compromised principles and half-measured decisions. Although Esau took Mahalath to be his wife, he remained married to his other two Hittite wives; thus, marriage became a tool to gain favor. Isaac sends Jacob away, but still allowed Esau to marry Hittite women because Rebekah only grieved over Jacob’s future in marriage. His principles as a father prioritized pleasing his wife. Rebekah compromised her marriage by manipulating her husband to continually favor Jacob.
In the same way, we can find ourselves falling for the very human, very real rhythm of simply reacting in our faith and our walk with God. We will do just enough to feel better about our spirituality and stop. We will go to God only when we need to, when we feel empty and want to feel full. Prayer becomes a tool and the Word only a book of wisdom and insight. Relationship is stale, and ultimately, pleasing God becomes an empty concept.
Yet, God remains patient with us and responds with faithfulness and a steadfast love that redeems His people—just like how He used this family, in spite of everything, to fulfill His promise to Abraham. Let us begin this day with a victorious reminder of the Father’s heart and a prayerful self-examination of who we are living for.
Prayer: God, thank You for Your steadfast love. Thank You for pursuing us and calling us to salvation. May our thoughts be informed by Your Word, our actions regulated by Your character, and our decisions dependent Your counsel. Help us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Jeremiah 47
Lunch Break Study
Read Romans 12:1-3: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.
Questions to consider
- Evidently, this verse is looking back to the OT sacrifice system in which only the best animals (i.e., without defects) were offered to God. In light of that, what does it mean to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord (2 Cor. 8:7)?
- According to this passage, what motivates and empowers us to live out spiritual worship?
- Are you testing yourself? Your motives? Your heart? Your lifestyle? Your decisions? What are you discerning as a result?
Notes
- The apostle Paul, before making a list of areas in which the believers need to bear tangible fruits, such as “in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in love” and also in “giving,” says, “Excel in everything.” This is to say, we must not give God our scraps and think that that is good enough.
- Romans 2:4 and Hebrews 11:6 shows how even pleasing God is impossible without Him. His kindness leads us to repentance, His mercies compel us to surrender, and His grace calls us to salvation. It always starts and ends in dependence on God.
- Personal response.
Evening Reflection
What did you learn or feel about your relationship with Christ today?
“Build your ark, the flood is coming.” That’s what I constantly heard in prayer during junior year of college. Little did I know that my family doesn’t look much different from Isaac’s. I saw my family as a typical Chinese-American family where we all be independent, only talking when the topic was money or grades. It wasn’t great, but I was comfortable. Then, my mother called saying that my father was having an affair for two years. I was shaken. I had just raised my head above the flood waters of my depression and now this. I couldn’t understand what God’s plan was, but God showed me that He could redeem human failure and paint a glorious picture. It wasn’t ideal, but for the first time, I was able to talk to my parents honestly. I opened up to my mother and counseled her through the story of God’s faithfulness in my depression. I was upset with my father, but I saw that the brokenness he exhibited is the same depravity God saves all of us from.
Today’s AMI QT Devotional is provided by Jennifer Kim. Jennifer, a graduate of Boston University, spent a year in Shanghai as one-year intern from 2013-14. She is currently serving as a staff at Catalyst Agape Church (New Jersey), while attending Alliance Theological Seminary.
I have a vivid memory of when I was six years old, being filled with so much pain and confusion as I saw my dad leave on a cab headed to the airport. My parents had made the decision to open up a new branch of their business in Brazil in hopes of fulfilling the American dream for their kids, while my mom continued to run their business in New York and taking care of my ten-year-old brother and myself. Looking back, my parents could never have imagined the cost of their decision: a family divided for over two decades with consequences that our family is still overcoming.
The AMI QT Devotional for today is written by Pastor Andrew Kim at Tapestry Church. Andrew is currently studying (M.Div.) at Fuller Theological Seminary. He and Jessie were married in 2014.
In today’s passage, we see the beginning of a story marked by deception and lies. As Isaac senses the nearness of his own death (although he would live for another 30-40 years), he feels the need to finish up some family business before he passes. However, the fact that the author of Genesis points out Jacob’s blindness is a hint on how the rest of the story will unfold. He plans on passing down the patriarchal blessing to Esau in exchange for a delicious meal. This seems to signify two things: First, it is comical in one sense to exchange the father’s blessing for a single meal. It seems as though Isaac does not understand the value of what he is passing on. Second, Isaac is apparently blind to the fact that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob in exchange for a meal. The irony of this situation is easily seen. And this is only the beginning of a chapter which exposes the brokenness of all the characters involved.
The AMI QT Devotionals from December 4-10 are written by Andy Kim. Andy, a graduate of Northwestern University and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.) currently serves as a staff at Radiance Christian Church in San Francisco. And this past November Andy got married… to Jane. Congratulations.
After a few years of working in corporate America, I felt the Lord calling me to pursue full-time ministry. The conversation I had with my boss would be one to remember. To provide some context, my boss was a devout Hindu who knew I was a Christian—way too devoted to church work. That day, I stepped into her office and gave her my resignation, explaining that I wanted to pursue full- time ministry. After much disbelief and negotiation, she allowed me to work on a flex schedule that gave me enough time to focus on ministry. But more than these benefits, it was her passing remark that I cherished: She said, “Andrew, you put out good work. But more than that, I feel like having you on my team means I have God on my team.” She joked saying that she wanted all the extra good karma possible, but even if it was a joke it meant everything to me.
Moving is stressful because it means finding a place to live in a crazy housing market, adjusting to different cultures, and embracing a new community. In the midst of this chaos, what we deem as non-negotiable keeps us sane: For some it’s an in-unit washer/dryer; the school district; bathroom water pressure; the type of people; nearby friends; etc. The general rule of thumb is that if you can secure what is non-negotiable to you, then you should sign the papers—or else you might lose it. And in the Mosaic period, the most important non-negotiable was a source of water.
Like father, like son—or in the case of my friend, like father, like daughter. To give context, my friend is a 250-pound man who was known to be like a rock—emotionless and unmovable. That was until his daughter came into the picture and found himself crying. Surprisingly, it was not when she was born, but it was the first time she had done something bad. What made him cry was the fact that he saw his own bad habits in his precious little baby daughter. He couldn’t believe how such an innocent child could follow after his own selfishness. Even when he was disciplining her, he felt like he was disciplining an innocent baby, a victim of his own selfishness.
Over the past decade, millennials have gotten a bad reputation, especially from the previous generations. Time magazine writer John Stein describes the stigma of the millennials as the “ME, ME, ME” generation. While previous generations have been built on hard work and sacrifice for the next, millennials expect to simply ride on their coat tails. Stein writes that the consequences are feelings of entitlement and laziness. As a millennial, I feel that these generalizations may be debatable, but we can all agree that there is no such thing as a free ride in our world today.
Over Thanksgiving, we laughed over past memories of my silly childhood and one stood out in particular. My mom would take me to prayer meetings and leave me in the back with the other kids to run around. In one service, the pastor went around praying and laying hands on the heads of the people. The next morning while my mom was praying, she suddenly felt a hand on her head. She had thought it was Jesus! But when she looked up, she was shocked to see her four-year-old son passionately jerking her head yelling gibberish! For many of us, we’ve learned to pray ever since we were young. But over time, such learned prayers can become repetitive and mundane. The danger is that these once faith-driven prayers can become mere afterthoughts.
Every year, America witnesses the inner savage in all humans—we call it Black Friday shopping. In the past, shoppers have actually pulled out guns but people still refused to let go of televisions and computers even as they were getting shot at. This year, a shopper threw a shoe at a poor innocent baby while trying to beat the rush. Suffice it to say, we can all agree that Black Friday shopping has taken over and destroyed the meaning of Thanksgiving. Rather than celebrating with families and friends and thinking of the years’ past blessings, people sit in tents waiting in lines, fighting one another. Over what? Just to save some money on items that will soon be outdated.