The AMI QT Devotionals for July 31-August 6 are provided by Christine Li. Christine, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, currently lives and works in New York City. She serves at Remnant Church in Manhattan.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR TODAY
Pressing On in Discipline
Hebrews 12:10b-11
“God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. “
Recently my family and I took a vacation to Europe. One of our sights was an iconic basilica in Budapest, and my brother and I decided we would go to its rooftop and see the city view. We thought it would be a fun idea to take the stairs (over 300) because it would surely give us a greater sense of satisfaction when we made our way to the top. We started the ascent through a cramped, windowless stairwell, making sure not to be too slow for the sake of the people coming behind us.
As you can imagine, there were many times where we wondered (at least I did), if we had made the right choice, because the stairs became increasingly tiring and uncomfortable. When we were at the top, however, the struggle no longer mattered. The view was spectacular! All the pain of that stone Stairmaster was pushed out of our minds.
In our fast-paced society, discipline can be such a dirty word. It is slow, boring, and often painful. When you’re stuck in the middle of it, there’s no way to get a glimpse of whether the satisfaction at the end is entirely worth it. The thought of quitting may be such a satisfying temptation as well.
However, the author of Hebrews reminds us that, out of love, God desires for us to be disciplined and refined so that we may reap a harvest in the future. God is aware that much of this process may be neither fun nor easy, but He promises that the final result – a holy life aligned with Him – will be completely worth it.
God has perfect intentions and love for us. He wants to give us character that is like His so that we may worship and enjoy Him to the fullest. Let’s not avoid the discipline that God sets in our lives. In all faith, we know that our good Father is leading us towards joy. Today let’s ask Him for conviction and obedience so that He can mold our character and make us more like Him.
Prayer: Father, I confess that I am not always excited for Your refining of my life. But please make me more like You. Give me a heart that desires to be holy as You are holy; help me hang onto the promise that the harvest You envision will be more than worth this temporary hardship. Help me to come before You, readily and joyfully accepting Your perfection of all my thoughts, desires, and habits.
Bible Reading for Today: John 13-14
A couple of years ago, I sprained my ankle on a day trip, and it started swelling up on the bus ride home. I had always been proud of my ability take care of myself, but I found that now I had to suddenly depend on others. I had to call a friend to let me stay at her place because I couldn’t climb four flights of stairs to my home. I needed help getting groceries or getting a ride to church. I felt embarrassed asking for help, but what I was thankful for was others’ willingness and generosity. There were times when I was literally carried by others during my recovery.
In college, three friends and I completed our Senior Design project together. As a team, we spent a lot of effort brainstorming, building, and creating the final product–even using our own money to buy parts and finish it. We were quite proud of our final product. Naturally, that’s what we presented officially to our teachers and classmates: the final product. We never pulled out the simplistic proof-of-concept, the machine parts that burned out, or other rough drafts we had scrapped.
For more than ten years, I have followed food bloggers intently. Whenever I tell people, they become acutely interested and ask, “Are you a good cook?” Unfortunately, I must say no. I have acquired a lot of knowledge through these blogs, their videos, and eating, but I’ve spent very little time actually practicing any of those things. I can throw fancy words around like “julienne” and “batonnet,” but I am totally unable to follow through in reality. What a waste it is to know so much and be so terrible in execution. Because it’s never translated from my head to my hands, all this knowledge is essentially useless.
I had a co-worker who had some very expensive travel luggage. I was marveling not only at how expensive it was but also how beaten up he had allowed it to get—it was scuffed over, with bumper stickers messily taped around. He assured me that that the whole mess was deliberate—you had to show off that you’d done quite a bit of traveling. His luggage, therefore, publicly bore the battle scars of wear and tear.
Last year around this time, the game Pokémon Go was released. It sent a flurry of students and working people exploring their neighborhoods, searching for Pokémon to collect. Wouldn’t you know—an empty park or hotel lobby in real life actually teeming with Pokémon! Who knew that a game could turn such common landmarks into places of treasure?
weekly Sunday service when the police raided our church. As the police rushed into our meeting, our members did their best to make it appear like we were simply having a casual gathering; however, the police knew exactly what we were doing and immediately ordered us to stop. With my heart pounding in shock, I looked at the worried faces of the locals and the leadership, and it was in that moment when I finally began to understand what it meant that there’s a cost in following Jesus.
Jennifer Kim, 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.
While many have heard the testimony of my time serving in Shanghai, not as many people know about the long two-year journey I had wrestling with God before I obeyed Him to serve overseas. On a regular Friday night worship service, our church was singing the song, “How Great is Our God,” and while I was meditating upon the words, I was so encompassed by the truth of the lyrics of how majestic and awesome our God is. Captured by His presence, I prayed to the Lord, “There is nothing more that I want than to serve the awesome God You are for the rest of my life.” Immediately after, I heard the Lord say to me, “Then will you go.” While this was one of the greatest moments of my faith, it also became one of my most shameful moments, because while I had just prayed this prayer of submission to the Lord, the moment God asked me to go overseas a fear came upon me, and all I could say was, “God I can’t do that.”
The word “compromise” probably isn’t popular among some believers who see themselves as committed to Scripture. To them, the compromisers lack the backbone to uphold their convictions. While that may be true in some cases, it isn’t always so. Now, upon seeing this image, some will see either a duck or a rabbit, initially. But, unless a person is dogmatically committed to his/her preferred position regardless of evidence, most people will see that the image contains both animals.
Recently, our church hosted a friendly yet competitive kickball tournament to help raise funds for our short-term missionaries. During the game, someone in the crowd started booing to one of the teams on the field! So, when I asked her why she was booing, she responded, “Because my team was losing.” In truth, I wanted to know why she thought it was necessary to demoralize a group of college students at missions’ fundraiser, but her answer reminded me of how there is an innate part of us that always wants to be on the winning side.