June Devotions from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers

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June 1

The Staggering Question
By Oswald Chambers

He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel 37:3


Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right?

There is only one appropriate answer "O Lord God, You know" (Ezekiel 37:3).

Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, "Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done."

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God.

We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do?

The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God's power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see?

Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.

"Behold, O My people, I will open your graves" (Ezekiel 37:12).

When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself.

If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace.

My "grave" has been opened by God and "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells" (Romans 7:18).

God's Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.



Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
It is impossible to read too much, but always keep before you why you read. Remember that "the need to receive, recognize, and rely on the Holy Spirit" is before all else. Approved Unto God, 11 L

Pale Rider
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Grandsons with me this weekend. Will post devotional later today.
You can go to utmost.otg
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June 2

Are You Obsessed by Something?
By Oswald Chambers

Who is the man that fears the Lord? Psalm 25:12


Are you obsessed by something?

You will probably say, "No, by nothing," but all of us are obsessed by something usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life.

But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God.
The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him.

The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God.
A child's awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother.

In that same way, we are to "live and move and have our being" in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.

If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying.

How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.

"He himself shall dwell in prosperity" (Psalm 25:13).

God will cause us to "dwell in prosperity," keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our "life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. "God is our refuge" (Psalm 46:1).

Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically. Disciples Indeed, 387 R

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June 3

"The Secret of the Lord"
By Oswald Chambers

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him Psalm 25:14


What is the sign of a friend?

Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows?

No, it is that he tells you his secret joys.

Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you.

Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us?

At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself to get us in touch with His purposes.

Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ's idea of prayer "Your will be done" (Matthew 6:10) that we catch the secrets of God?

What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.

"Him shall He teach in the way He chooses" (Psalm 25:12).

At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us.

If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices.
And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once.

Never try to reason it out, saying, "I wonder why I shouldn't do this?" God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense.

And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, "Now, Lord, what is Your will?"


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father's heart in the Cross of Christ. The Highest GoodThy Great Redemption, 558 L

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June 4

The Never-forsaking God
By Oswald Chambers

He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5


What line of thinking do my thoughts take? Do I turn to what God says or to my own fears?

Am I simply repeating what God says, or am I learning to truly hear Him and then to respond after I have heard what He says?

"For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we may boldly say: 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?' " (Hebrews 13:5-6).

"I will never leave you" not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.

"I will neverforsake you." Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful just the everyday activities of life do I hear God's assurance even in these?

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future.

But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment.

If we have God's assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R

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June 5

God's Assurance
By Oswald Chambers

He Himself has said.So we may boldly say Hebrews 13:5-6


My assurance is to be built upon God's assurance to me.

God says, "I will never leave you," so that then I "may boldly say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear' " (Hebrews 13:5-6).

In other words, I will not be obsessed with apprehension.
This does not mean that I will not be tempted to fear, but I will remember God's words of assurance.

I will be full of courage, like a child who strives to reach the standard his father has set for him.
The faith of many people begins to falter when apprehensions enter their thinking, and they forget the meaning of God's assurance they forget to take a deep spiritual breath.

The only way to remove the fear from our lives is to listen to God's assurance to us.

What are you fearing?

Whatever it may be, you are not a coward about it you are determined to face it, yet you still have a feeling of fear.

When it seems that there is nothing and no one to help you, say to yourself, "But 'The Lord is my helper' this very moment, even in my present circumstance."

Are you learning to listen to God before you speak, or are you saying things and then trying to make God's Word fit what you have said?

Take hold of the Father's assurance, and then say with strong courage, "I will not fear." It does not matter what evil or wrong may be in our way, because "He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you.' "

Human frailty is another thing that gets between God's words of assurance and our own words and thoughts.

When we realize how feeble we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God seems to be nonexistent.

But remember God's assurance to us "I will neverforsake you."

Have we learned to sing after hearing God's keynote?

Are we continually filled with enough courage to say, "The Lord is my helper," or are we yielding to fear?


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L

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June 6 - (Never Forget!)

"Work Out" What God "Works in" You
By Oswald Chambers

work out your own salvationfor it is God who works in you Philippians 2:12-13


Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do.

When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God.

Yet you say, "But I don't know if my will is in agreement with God."
Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time.

What causes you to say "I will not obey" is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God.

The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.

The will is the essential element in God's creation of human beings sin is a perverse nature which entered into people.
In someone who has been born again, the source of the will is Almighty God. "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

With focused attention and great care, you have to "work out" what God "works in" you not work to accomplish or earn "your own salvation," but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord.

As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against God's will God's will is your will.

Your natural choices will be in accordance with God's will, and living this life will be as natural as breathing.

Stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment and blocking its flow.

The only thing to do with this barrier of stubbornness is to blow it up with "dynamite," and the "dynamite" is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will?

God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed.
So Send I You

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June 7

The Greatest Source of Power
By Oswald Chambers

Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do John 14:13


Am I fulfilling this ministry of intercession deep within the hidden recesses of my life?

There is no trap nor any danger at all of being deceived or of showing pride in true intercession.
It is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit through which the Father is glorified.

Am I allowing my spiritual life to waste away, or am I focused, bringing everything to one central point the atonement of my Lord?

Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest of my life? If the central point, or the most powerful influence, of my life is the atonement of the Lord, then every aspect of my life will bear fruit for Him.

However, I must take the time to realize what this central point of power is.
Am I willing to give one minute out of every hour to concentrate on it?

"If you abide in Me" that is, if you continue to act, and think, and work from that central point "you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7).

Am I abiding? Am I taking the time to abide? What is the greatest source of power in my life?

Is it my work, service, and sacrifice for others, or is it my striving to work for God?

It should be none of these what ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the atonement of the Lord. It is not on what we spend the greatest amount of time that molds us the most, but whatever exerts the most power over us.

We must make a determination to limit and concentrate our desires and interests on the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

"Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do." The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and what appears to be his free choices are actually God's foreordained decrees. Is this mysterious?

Does it appear to contradict sound logic or seem totally absurd?

Yes, but what a glorious truth it is to a saint of God.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord's teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed

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June 8

What's Next To Do?
By Oswald Chambers

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13:17


Be determined to know more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea.

Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened.

If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock.

You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself begin to have spiritual discernment.

When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more.
Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do.

You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled.

It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment.

It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2.
It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice.

"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22).

Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.

"If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know" (John 7:17).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of GodThe Making of a Christian, 680 R

slimecap
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Pale Rider said:

June 8 If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God
Included in my Saturday morning breakfast prayer. Thank you, Brother Pale Rider !
Pale Rider
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slimecap said:

Pale Rider said:

June 8 If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God
Included in my Saturday morning breakfast prayer. Thank you, Brother Pale Rider !

Praise God. Blessings.
Pale Rider
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June 9

Then What's Next To Do?
By Oswald Chambers

Everyone who asks receives Luke 11:10


Ask if you have not received. There is nothing more difficult than asking.

We will have yearnings and desires for certain things, and even suffer as a result of their going unfulfilled, but not until we are at the limit of desperation will we ask.

It is the sense of not being spiritually real that causes us to ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of your total insufficiency and poverty?

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5), but be sure that you do lack wisdom before you ask. You cannot bring yourself to the point of spiritual reality anytime you choose.

The best thing to do, once you realize you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit, basing your request on the promise of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the one who makes everything that Jesus did for you real in your life.

"Everyone who asks receives." This does not mean that you will not get if you do not ask, but it means that until you come to the point of asking, you will not receive from God (seeMatthew 5:45).

To be able to receive means that you have to come into the relationship of a child of God, and then you comprehend and appreciate mentally, morally, and with spiritual understanding, that these things come from God.

"If any of you lacks wisdom." If you realize that you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality do not put the blinders of reason on again.

The word ask actually means "beg." Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are poor enough spiritually to show our interest.

Yet we will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because we are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty.

A pauper does not ask out of any reason other than the completely hopeless and painful condition of his poverty. He is not ashamed to beg blessed are the paupers in spirit (see Matthew 5:3).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of GodThe Making of a Christian, 680 R

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June 10

And After That What's Next To Do?
By Oswald Chambers

seek, and you will find Luke 11:9


Seek if you have not found. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss" (James 4:3).

If you ask for things from life instead of from God, "you ask amiss"; that is, you ask out of your desire for self-fulfillment.

The more you fulfill yourself the less you will seek God. "seek, and you will find." Get to work narrow your focus and interests to this one thing.

Have you ever sought God with your whole heart, or have you simply given Him a feeble cry after some emotionally painful experience? "seek, [focus,] and you will find."

"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1).
Are you thirsty, or complacent and indifferent so satisfied with your own experience that you want nothing more of God?

Experience is a doorway, not a final goal. Beware of building your faith on experience, or your life will not ring true and will only sound the note of a critical spirit.

Remember that you can never give another person what you have found, but you can cause him to have a desire for it.

"knock, and it will be opened to you" (Luke 11:9). "Draw near to God" (James 4:8).

Knock the door is closed, and your heartbeat races as you knock. "Cleanse your hands" (James 4:8). Knock a bit louder you begin to find that you are dirty. "purify your hearts" (James 4:8).

It is becoming even more personal you are desperate and serious now you will do anything. "Lament" (James 4:9).

Have you ever lamented, expressing your sorrow before God for the condition of your inner life?

There is no thread of self-pity left, only the heart-rending difficulty and amazement which comes from seeing what kind of person you really are.

"Humble yourselves" (James 4:10). It is a humbling experience to knock at God's door you have to knock with the crucified thief. "to him who knocks it will be opened" (Luke 11:10).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own. Conformed to His Image, 381 L

Pale Rider
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website is inaccessible. will try to update tomorrow.

God Bless.


https://utmost.org
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June 11

Getting There (1)
By Oswald Chambers

Come to Me Matthew 11:28


Where sin and sorrow stops, and the song of the saint starts. Do I really want to get there? I can right now. The questions that truly matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by these words "Come to Me." Our Lord's words are not, "Do this, or don't do that," but "Come to me." If I will simply come to Jesus, my real life will be brought into harmony with my real desires. I will actually cease from sin, and will find the song of the Lord beginning in my life.
Have you ever come to Jesus? Look at the stubbornness of your heart. You would rather do anything than this one simple childlike thing "Come to Me." If you really want to experience ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.
Jesus Christ makes Himself the test to determine your genuineness. Look how He used the word come. At the most unexpected moments in your life there is this whisper of the Lord "Come to Me," and you are immediately drawn to Him. Personal contact with Jesus changes everything. Be "foolish" enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude necessary for you to come to Him is one where your will has made the determination to let go of everything and deliberately commit it all to Him.
"and I will give you rest" that is, "I will sustain you, causing you to stand firm." He is not saying, "I will put you to bed, hold your hand, and sing you to sleep." But, in essence, He is saying, "I will get you out of bed out of your listlessness and exhaustion, and out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive. I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained by the perfection of vital activity." Yet we become so weak and pitiful and talk about "suffering" the will of the Lord! Where is the majestic vitality and the power of the Son of God in that?


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, "Oh well, sin doesn't matter much"? Disciples Indeed, 389 L

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June 12

Getting There (2)
By Oswald Chambers

They said to Him, "Rabbiwhere are You staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." John 1:38-39


Where our self-interest sleeps and the real interest is awakened. "Theyremained with Him that day."

That is about all some of us ever do. We stay with Him a short time, only to wake up to our own realities of life. Our self-interest rises up and our abiding with Him is past. Yet there is no circumstance of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.

"You are Simon.You shall be called Cephas" (John 1:42).
God writes our new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased our pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest.

Some of us have our new name written only in certain spots, like spiritual measles. And in those areas of our lives we look all right.

When we are in our best spiritual mood, you would think we were the highest quality saints. But don't dare look at us when we are not in that mood.

A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him self-interest, pride, and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.

Pride is the sin of making "self" our god. And some of us today do this, not like the Pharisee, but like the tax collector (see Luke 18:9-14).

For you to say, "Oh, I'm no saint," is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God.
You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, "I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ."

Why aren't you a saint?
It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one.

You say it would be all right if God saved you and took you straight to heaven.
That is exactly what He will do! And not only do we make our home with Him, but Jesus said of His Father and Himself, "We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23).

Put no conditions on your life let Jesus be everything to you, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for eternity.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

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June 13

Getting There (3)
By Oswald Chambers

come, follow Me. Luke 18:22


Where our individual desire dies and sanctified surrender lives. One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of our own individual temperament.

We make our temperament and our natural desires barriers to coming to Jesus. Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires.

We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself (see Romans 12:1).

If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you and His experiments always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ.

In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh.

A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.

If you abandon everything to Jesus, and come when He says, "Come," then He will continue to say, "Come," through you. You will go out into the world reproducing the echo of Christ's "Come."

That is the result in every soul who has abandoned all and come to Jesus.
Have I come to Him? Will I come now?


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L

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June 14

Get Moving! (1)
By Oswald Chambers

Abide in Me John 15:4


In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus I have to do it myself. I have to bring "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

"Abide in Me" in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. Our lives are not made up of only one neatly confined area.

Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him?

How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting.

It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord's inner abiding was pure and unblemished.
He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father's plans and directions for Him.

Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord's life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, "Yes, Lord, just a minute I still have this to do.

Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then."

Get moving begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort.

Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The great point of Abraham's faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R

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June 15

Get A Move On
By Oswald Chambers

And beside this,add 2 Peter 1:5


In the Matter of Drudgery
You have inherited the Divine nature, says Peter (v.4), now screw your attention down and form habits, give diligence, concentrate.

"Add" means all that character means.
No man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character; he has to make character.
Nor are we born with habits; we have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us.

We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character.

The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do. "Jesustook a towel,and began to wash the disciples' feet."

There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task.
Routine is God's way of saving us between our times of inspiration.

Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.

It is the "adding" that is difficult. We say we do not expect God to carry us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we did!

The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it.
If I do my duty, not for duty's sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R

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June 16

"Will You Lay Down Your Life?"
By Oswald Chambers

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.I have called you friends John 15:13, 15


Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him.

Peter said to the Lord, "I will lay down my life for Your sake," and he meant it (John 13:37).

He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, "Will you lay down your life for My sake?" (John 13:38).

It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God.

We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways.

There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration.

It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (see Mark 9:1-29).

For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16).

Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him.

It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult.

God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, "Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful."

And Jesus says to us, "I have called you friends." Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage

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June 17

Beware of Criticizing Others
By Oswald Chambers

Judge not, that you be not judged. Matthew 7:1


Jesus' instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put; He says, "Don't."

The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known.
Criticism is one of the ordinary activities of people, but in the spiritual realm nothing is accomplished by it.

The effect of criticism is the dividing up of the strengths of the one being criticized.
The Holy Spirit is the only one in the proper position to criticize, and He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding.

It is impossible to enter into fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood.
Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindictive, and cruel, and leaves you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others.

Jesus says that as His disciple you should cultivate a temperament that is never critical. This will not happen quickly but must be developed over a span of time. You must constantly beware of anything that causes you to think of yourself as a superior person.

There is no escaping the penetrating search of my life by Jesus. If I see the little speck in your eye, it means that I have a plank of timber in my own (see Matthew 7:3-5).

Every wrong thing that I see in you, God finds in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-24).

Stop having a measuring stick for other people.
There is always at least one more fact, which we know nothing about, in every person's situation.

The first thing God does is to give us a thorough spiritual cleaning.

After that, there is no possibility of pride remaining in us. I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The great point of Abraham's faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R

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June 18

Keep Recognizing Jesus
By Oswald Chambers

Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid Matthew 14:29-30


The wind really was boisterous and the waves really were high, but Peter didn't see them at first.
He didn't consider them at all; he simply recognized his Lord, stepped out in recognition of Him, and "walked on the water."

Then he began to take those things around him into account, and instantly, down he went. Why couldn't our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves, as well as on top of them?

He could have, yet neither could be done without Peter's continuing recognition of the Lord Jesus.

We step right out with recognition of God in some things, then self-consideration enters our lives and down we go.
If you are truly recognizing your Lord, you have no business being concerned about how and where He engineers your circumstances.

The things surrounding you are real, but when you look at them you are immediately overwhelmed, and even unable to recognize Jesus. Then comes His rebuke, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31).

Let your actual circumstances be what they may, but keep recognizing Jesus, maintaining complete reliance upon Him.

If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you.
Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?"

Be reckless immediately totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything by casting your all upon Him.

You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him.

It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him.

You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness being willing to risk your all.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master's service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. Approved Unto God, 11 L

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June 19

The Service of Passionate Devotion
By Oswald Chambers

do you love Me?Tend My sheep. John 21:16


Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him.

We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him.

Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26).

In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, "If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me." A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, "Now I see who Jesus is!" that is the source of devotion.

Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ.

People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way.

Our Lord's primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity,

I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a "doormat."

The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness.

Yet it is like a grain of wheat that "falls into the ground and dies" it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decaythe decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. The Place of Help, 1032 L

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June 20

Have You Come to "When" Yet?
By Oswald Chambers

The Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Job 42:10


A pitiful, sickly, and self-centered kind of prayer and a determined effort and selfish desire to be right with God are never found in the New Testament.

The fact that I am trying to be right with God is actually a sign that I am rebelling against the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

I pray, "Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer I will walk rightly before You if You will help me." But I cannot make myself right with God; I cannot make my life perfect.

I can only be right with God if I accept the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it?

I have to surrender all my rights and demands, and cease from every self-effort. I must leave myself completely alone in His hands, and then I can begin to pour my life out in the priestly work of intercession.

There is a great deal of prayer that comes from actual disbelief in the atonement. Jesus is not just beginning to save us He has already saved us completely.
It is an accomplished fact, and it is an insult to Him for us to ask Him to do what He has already done.

If you are not now receiving the "hundredfold" which Jesus promised (see Matthew 19:29), and not getting insight into God's Word, then start praying for your friends enter into the ministry of the inner life.

"The Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends."

As a saved soul, the real business of your life is intercessory prayer.

Whatever circumstances God may place you in, always pray immediately that His atonement may be recognized and as fully understood in the lives of others as it has been in yours.

Pray for your friends now, and pray for those with whom you come in contact now.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don't agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R

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June 21

The Ministry of the Inner Life
By Oswald Chambers

You area royal priesthood 1 Peter 2:9


By what right have we become "a royal priesthood"?

It is by the right of the atonement by the Cross of Christ that this has been accomplished.

Are we prepared to purposely disregard ourselves and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer?

The continual inner-searching we do in an effort to see if we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, sickly type of Christianity, not the vigorous and simple life of a child of God.

Until we get into this right and proper relationship with God, it is simply a case of our "hanging on by the skin of our teeth," although we say, "What a wonderful victory I have!"

Yet there is nothing at all in that which indicates the miracle of redemption.
Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief that the redemption is complete.

Then don't worry anymore about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ has said, in essence, "Pray for the friend who comes to you at midnight, pray for the saints of God, and pray for all men."

Pray with the realization that you are perfect only in Christ Jesus, not on the basis of this argument: "Oh, Lord, I have done my best; please hear me now."

How long is it going to take God to free us from the unhealthy habit of thinking only about ourselves?

We must get to the point of being sick to death of ourselves, until there is no longer any surprise at anything God might tell us about ourselves.

We cannot reach and understand the depths of our own meagerness. There is only one place where we are right with God, and that is in Christ Jesus.

Once we are there, we have to pour out our lives for all we are worth in this ministry of the inner life.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the darkthe imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God's sight. The Love of GodThe Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L

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June 22

The Unchanging Law of Judgment
By Oswald Chambers

With what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Matthew 7:2


This statement is not some haphazard theory, but it is an eternal law of God.

Whatever judgment you give will be the very way you are judged.
There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus said that the basis of life is retribution "with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."

If you have been shrewd in finding out the shortcomings of others, remember that will be exactly how you will be measured. The way you pay is the way life will pay you back. This eternal law works from God's throne down to us (see Psalm 18:25-26).

Romans 2:1 applies it in even a more definite way by saying that the one who criticizes another is guilty of the very same thing.

God looks not only at the act itself, but also at the possibility of committing it, which He sees by looking at our hearts. To begin with, we do not believe the statements of the Bible.

For instance, do we really believe the statement that says we criticize in others the very things we are guilty of ourselves?

The reason we see hypocrisy, deceit, and a lack of genuineness in others is that they are all in our own hearts. The greatest characteristic of a saint is humility, as evidenced by being able to say honestly and humbly, "Yes, all those, as well as other evils, would have been exhibited in me if it were not for the grace of God.
Therefore, I have no right to judge."

Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1).
He went on to say, in effect, "If you do judge, you will be judged in exactly the same way."

Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, "My God, judge me as I have judged others"?

We have judged others as sinners if God should judge us in the same way, we would be condemned to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L

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June 23

"Acquainted With Grief"
By Oswald Chambers

He isa Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53:3


We are not "acquainted with grief" in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it.

We endure it and live through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin.

We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God.

But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans.

Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.

We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming.

Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life.
The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue if sin rules in me, God's life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed.

There is nothing more fundamental than that.

The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine that is, sin will kill the life of God in us.

We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Awe is the condition of a man's spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child. Not Knowing Whither, 882 L

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June 24

Reconciling Yourself to the Fact of Sin
By Oswald Chambers

This is your hour, and the power of darkness. Luke 22:53


Not being reconciled to the fact of sin not recognizing it and refusing to deal with it produces all the disasters in life.

You may talk about the lofty virtues of human nature, but there is something in human nature that will mockingly laugh in the face of every principle you have.

If you refuse to agree with the fact that there is wickedness and selfishness, something downright hateful and wrong, in human beings, when it attacks your life, instead of reconciling yourself to it, you will compromise with it and say that it is of no use to battle against it.

Have you taken this "hour, and the power of darkness" into account, or do you have a view of yourself which includes no recognition of sin whatsoever?

In your human relationships and friendships, have you reconciled yourself to the fact of sin?
If not, just around the next corner you will find yourself trapped and you will compromise with it.

But if you will reconcile yourself to the fact of sin, you will realize the danger immediately and say, "Yes, I see what this sin would mean."

The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship it simply establishes a mutual respect for the fact that the basis of sinful life is disastrous.

Always beware of any assessment of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin.

Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical nor suspicious, because He had absolute trust in what He could do for human nature.

The pure man or woman is the one who is shielded from harm, not the innocent person. The so-called innocent man or woman is never safe.

Men and women have no business trying to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child.

Any person is deserving of blame if he is unwilling to reconcile himself to the fact of sin.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L

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June 25

Receiving Yourself in the Fires of Sorrow
By Oswald Chambers

what shall I say? "Father, save Me from this hour"? But for this purpose I came to this hour. "Father, glorify Your name." John 12:27-28


As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow.

Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.

We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish.

Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, sorrow, and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

Sorrow removes a great deal of a person's shallowness, but it does not always make that person better. Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me.

You cannot find or receive yourself through success, because you lose your head over pride.
And you cannot receive yourself through the monotony of your daily life, because you give in to complaining.

The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be this way is immaterial.

The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience.

You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you.

But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away.

If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the darkthe imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God's sight. The Love of GodThe Ministry of the Unnoticed, 669 L

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June 26

Drawing on the Grace of God Now
By Oswald Chambers

Weplead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1


The grace you had yesterday will not be sufficient for today.

Grace is the overflowing favor of God, and you can always count on it being available to draw upon as needed. "in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses" that is where our patience is tested (2 Corinthians 6:4).

Are you failing to rely on the grace of God there? Are you saying to yourself, "Oh well, I won't count this time"?

It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you it is taking the grace of God now.

We tend to make prayer the preparation for our service, yet it is never that in the Bible.

Prayer is the practice of drawing on the grace of God. Don't say, "I will endure this until I can get away and pray."
Pray now draw on the grace of God in your moment of need.
Prayer is the most normal and useful thing; it is not simply a reflex action of your devotion to God. We are very slow to learn to draw on God's grace through prayer.

"in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors" (2 Corinthians 6:5) in all these things, display in your life a drawing on the grace of God, which will show evidence to yourself and to others that you are a miracle of His.

Draw on His grace now, not later.

The primary word in the spiritual vocabulary is now.

Let circumstances take you where they will, but keep drawing on the grace of God in whatever condition you may find yourself.

One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be totally humiliated before others without displaying even the slightest trace of anything but His grace.

"having nothing." Never hold anything in reserve.

Pour yourself out, giving the best that you have, and always be poor.

Never be diplomatic and careful with the treasure God gives you. "and yet possessing all things" this is poverty triumphant (2 Corinthians 6:10).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure. The Love of GodThe Making of a Christian, 680 R

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June 27

The Overshadowing of God's Personal Deliverance
By Oswald Chambers

"I am with you to deliver you," says the Lord. Jeremiah 1:8


God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally "your life shall be as a prize to you" (Jeremiah 39:18).

That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives.

Our personal property and possessions are to be a matter of indifference to us, and our hold on these things should be very loose.

If this is not the case, we will have panic, heartache, and distress. Having the proper outlook is evidence of the deeply rooted belief in the overshadowing of God's personal deliverance.

The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on a mission for Jesus Christ, there is no time to stand up for ourselves.

Jesus says, in effect, "Don't worry about whether or not you are being treated justly." Looking for justice is actually a sign that we have been diverted from our devotion to Him.

Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it.

If we look for justice, we will only begin to complain and to indulge ourselves in the discontent of self-pity, as if to say, "Why should I be treated like this?"

If we are devoted to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with what we encounter, whether it is just or unjust.

In essence, Jesus says, "Continue steadily on with what I have told you to do, and I will guard your life.

If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance."

Even the most devout among us become atheistic in this regard we do not believe Him.

We put our common sense on the throne and then attach God's name to it.

We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts (see Proverbs 3:5-6).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L

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June 28

Held by the Grip of God
By Oswald Chambers

I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Philippians 3:12


Never choose to be a worker for God, but once God has placed His call on you, woe be to you if you "turn aside to the right hand or to the left" (Deuteronomy 5:32).

We are not here to work for God because we have chosen to do so, but because God has "laid hold of" us. And once He has done so, we never have this thought, "Well, I'm really not suited for this."

What you are to preach is also determined by God, not by your own natural leanings or desires.

Keep your soul steadfastly related to God, and remember that you are called not simply to convey your testimony but also to preach the gospel.

Every Christian must testify to the truth of God, but when it comes to the call to preach, there must be the agonizing grip of God's hand on you your life is in the grip of God for that very purpose.

How many of us are held like that?

Never water down the Word of God, but preach it in its undiluted sternness.

There must be unflinching faithfulness to the Word of God, but when you come to personal dealings with others, remember who you are you are not some special being created in heaven, but a sinner saved by grace.

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I doI press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L

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June 29

The Strictest Discipline
By Oswald Chambers

If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Matthew 5:30


Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that "if your right hand causes you to sin" in your walk with Him, then it is better to "cut it off."

There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them.

Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says that if it hinders you in following His precepts, then "cut it off."

The principle taught here is the strictest discipline or lesson that ever hit humankind.

When God changes you through regeneration, giving you new life through spiritual rebirth, your life initially has the characteristic of being maimed.

There are a hundred and one things that you dare not do things that would be sin for you, and would be recognized as sin by those who really know you.

But the unspiritual people around you will say, "What's so wrong with doing that? How absurd you are!"
There has never yet been a saint who has not lived a maimed life initially.

Yet it is better to enter into life maimed but lovely in God's sight than to appear lovely to man's eyes but lame to God's.

At first, Jesus Christ through His Spirit has to restrain you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you.

Yet, see that you don't use your restrictions to criticize someone else.

The Christian life is a maimed life initially, but in Matthew 5:48 Jesus gave us the picture of a perfectly well-rounded life "You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Awe is the condition of a man's spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child. Not Knowing Whither, 882 L

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June 30

Do It Now!
By Oswald Chambers

Agree with your adversary quickly Matthew 5:25


In this verse, Jesus Christ laid down a very important principle by saying, "Do what you know you must do now. Do it quickly.

If you don't, an inevitable process will begin to work 'till you have paid the last penny' (Matthew 5:26) in pain, agony, and distress." God's laws are unchangeable and there is no escape from them. The teachings of Jesus always penetrate right to the heart of our being.

Wanting to make sure that my adversary gives me all my rights is a natural thing.

But Jesus says that it is a matter of inescapable and eternal importance to me that I pay my adversary what I owe him.

From our Lord's standpoint it doesn't matter whether I am cheated or not, but what does matter is that I don't cheat someone else. Am I insisting on having my own rights, or am I paying what I owe from Jesus Christ's standpoint?

Do it quickly bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must act immediately.
If you don't, the inevitable, relentless process will begin to work.

God is determined to have His child as pure, clean, and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will allow His Spirit to use whatever process it may take to bring us to obedience.

The fact that we insist on proving that we are right is almost always a clear indication that we have some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit of God so strongly urges us to stay steadfastly in the light! (see John 3:19-21).

"Agree with your adversary quickly." Have you suddenly reached a certain place in your relationship with someone, only to find that you have anger in your heart? Confess it quickly make it right before God.

Be reconciled to that person do it now!


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology, 199 R

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