Wednesday in the Word

Hello on a Thursday!

I was typing out my devotionals yesterday when I knocked out at 8pm. I woke up at around 1am, and was still really groggy, so I ended up putting it off until today to finish. However, my devotionals for today actually would apply a lot more to the things going on in my life, and so I thought I would go ahead and just redo this post. I drafted my thoughts from yesterday, so you may see it later! Long story short, this is still Wednesday in the Word, just a little late :)

Today's devotional was such an encouraging experience and reminder that in all things we do, we should not be striving for glory, because our moment of glory was when Christ resurrected after dying on the cross for our sins. Therefore, all that we do in this life should point back to that Gospel message - because glory was never ours for the taking, yet Christ chose to redeem us.

My devotionals today was on Hebrews 2:10-18, and I really loved this verse in particular: "For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham" - Hebrews 2:16

I mean, that is basically the story of Lucifer, right? Angels, in their mistakes and sins do not have a chance of redemption, and are cast away to suffer in death. God has continually chosen us. He chose to give us His image. He gave us His Son, and gave us redemption. Angels - are they not above humans? And yet in death, we can return to His Kingdom above the angels, because we are God's beloved creation. Who am I? Really, who am I to receive such an honour? Who are we? How can we recognize this amazing revelation and not desire to give thanks and worship God? Our identity is truly given to us by Christ - only through him, we have life and worth.

That leads us to kind of a perfect segway for me to input a shameless self-promo-ish here. As I mentioned, this devotional is very applicable for me at this stage in my life, because it serves as a reminder for me to always remember whom I'm working for, and what I'm working for. I need to consistently remember to stay humble, and remember that no matter what happens, it is all in God's will and plan. I work for Him, and for His glory; I should never work for my own glory, or simply for money and success. Now, what does this all pertain to?

Some of you may have noticed a couple extra tabs on my homepage, and that's because I have just begun a podcast. The podcast is called "UNASHAMED (to be Asian).", where I'm dropping a new episode every Friday, and posting a reflective post on Wednesday on the podcast blog. Something that has been catching a lot of attention in light of COVID-19 is the racism against Asians and Asian-X, and it can be really discouraging. I wanted to share a bit of positivity within the community, and shed some awareness on some of the ways we as Asians and Asian-X individuals can sometimes bottle up a lot of shame and negativity. The podcast is meant to uplift and let us reflect more on how we view and internalize shame, and hopefully we can learn to become unashamed, together. After all, God chose us above His angels, what more validation do we need?! It's a lot of honesty, a lot of confessing, and hopefully a lot of community :) To check it out, you can click here to see the website and blog, here for SoundCloud, or here to go to the Spotify page!

To sustain my podcast, I'm also beginning to sell some prints of my travel photography from back when I was travelling, so if you're doing some re-decorating at home to make your space feel fresh, please support by checking out my Etsy! If you see a photo you like from my Instagram that isn't listed on my shop, please let me know. I'm still slowly adding things to the shop, and can help you with a custom order :) I'm slowly making the transition towards self-employment, and in these endeavors, I'm trying to - learning to - let go more and more control, and simply have faith that God will glorify Himself through whatever testimony it is that He is writing for me.

I just wanted to leave you with some parting reflection questions: What are some ways that you see God glorifying Himself through you? What are some aspects of life that you would want to surrender more to Him? And lastly, what makes you in awe of Christ?