| Excerpted from: My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. pg. July 20, Dependent on God's Presence "They that wait upon the Lord...shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 There is no thrill in walking; it is the test of all the stable qualities. To "walk and not faint" is the highest reach possible for strength.
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God does not say -- Be spiritual, but -- "Walk before Me." When we are in an unhealthy state physically or emotionally, we always want thrills. In the physical domain this will lead to counterfeiting the Holy Ghost; in the emotional life it leads to inordinate affection and the destruction of morality; and in the spiritual domain if we insist on getting thrills, on mounting up with wings, it will end in the destruction of spiritually. The reality of God's presence is not dependent on any place, but upon the determination to set the Lord always before us.
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| Excerpted from: My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. pg. July 10, The Spiritual Sluggard "Let us consider on another to provoke unto love and good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." Hebrews 10:24:25 We are all capable of being spiritual sluggards; we do not want to mix with the rough and tumble of life as it is, our one object is to secure retirement. The note struck in Hebrews 10 is that of provoking on another and of keeping together -- both of which require initiative, the initiative of Christ realization, not of self-realization. To live a remote, retired, secluded life is the antipodes of spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.
The test of our spirituality comes when we come up against injustice and meanness and ingratitude and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritual sluggards. We want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of retirement. We utilize God for the sake of getting peace and joy, that is, we do not want to realize Jesus Christ, but only our enjoyment of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things are effects and we try to make them causes.
"I think it meet," said Peter, "...to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." It is a most disturbing thing to be smitten in the ribs by some provoker of God, by someone who is full of spiritual activity. Active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work may be the counterfeit of spiritual activity. The danger of spiritual sluggishness is that we do not wish to be stirred up, all we want to hear about is spiritual retirement. Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement -- "Go tell My brethren...." |
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