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

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March 1

The Piercing Question
By Oswald Chambers

Do you love Me? John 21:17


Peter's response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" (Matthew 26:35; also see Matthew 26:33-34).

Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ.

Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person.

True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, "Whoever confesses Me before men [that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8).

Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives.

The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord intensifies our sensitivities to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the most exquisite pain conceivable. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level.

"For the Word of God is living and powerful, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit" to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12).

When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense.

It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will can feel the pain.

There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord's Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.



Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

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March 2

Have You Felt the Pain Inflicted by the Lord?
By Oswald Chambers

He said to him the third time, "do you love Me?" John 21:17


Have you ever felt the pain, inflicted by the Lord, at the very center of your being, deep down in the most sensitive area of your life?

The devil never inflicts pain there, and neither can sin nor human emotions. Nothing can cut through to that part of our being but the Word of God.

"Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' " Yet he was awakened to the fact that at the center of his personal life he was devoted to Jesus.

And then he began to see what Jesus' patient questioning meant. There was not the slightest bit of doubt left in Peter's mind; he could never be deceived again.

And there was no need for an impassioned response; no need for immediate action or an emotional display.

It was a revelation to him to realize how much he did love the Lord, and with amazement he simply said, "Lord, You know all things."

Peter began to see how very much he did love Jesus, and there was no need to say, "Look at this or that as proof of my love." Peter was beginning to discover within himself just how much he really did love the Lord.

He discovered that his eyes were so fixed on Jesus Christ that he saw no one else in heaven above or on the earth below.

But he did not know it until the probing, hurting questions of the Lord were asked. The Lord's questions always reveal the true me to myself.

Oh, the wonder of the patient directness and skill of Jesus Christ with Peter! Our Lord never asks questions until the perfect time.

Rarely, but probably once in each of our lives, He will back us into a corner where He will hurt us with His piercing questions.

Then we will realize that we do love Him far more deeply than our words can ever say.


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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March 3

His Commission to Us
By Oswald Chambers

Feed My sheep. John 21:17


This is love in the making. The love of God is not created it is His nature. When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is demonstrated in us.

The goal of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father?

He had such a oneness with the Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out for us. And He says to us, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21).

Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with the Lord's piercing question. The Lord's next point is "Pour yourself out. Don't testify about how much you love Me and don't talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just 'Feed My sheep.'

" Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God's love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me.

The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions I have to feed His sheep.

We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings.

That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R

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March 4

Is This True of Me?
By Oswald Chambers

None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself Acts 20:24


It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide.

You may be more prosperous and successful from the world's perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will.

You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.
What do I count in my life as "dear to myself"?

If I have not been seized by Jesus Christ and have not surrendered myself to Him, I will consider the time I decide to give God and my own ideas of service as dear. I will also consider my own life as "dear to myself."

But Paul said he considered his life dear so that he might fulfill the ministry he had received, and he refused to use his energy on anything else. This verse shows an almost noble annoyance by Paul at being asked to consider himself.

He was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Our ordinary and reasonable service to God may actually compete against our total surrender to Him.

Our reasonable work is based on the following argument which we say to ourselves, "Remember how useful you are here, and think how much value you would be in that particular type of work."

That attitude chooses our own judgment, instead of Jesus Christ, to be our guide as to where we should go and where we could be used the most.

Never consider whether or not you are of use but always consider that "you are not your own" (1 Corinthians 6:19). You are His.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L

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March 5

Is He Really My Lord?
By Oswald Chambers

so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus Acts 20:24


Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing.

The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do.
And He says to us, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21).

Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful to it to consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry. Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).

We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord.

To do this we must have close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior. And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16 "I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."

"Do you love Me?" Then, "Feed My sheep" (John 21:17).

He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God.

If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is not the same as the call the need is the opportunity to exercise the call.

The call is to be faithful to the ministry you received when you were in true fellowship with Him.
This does not imply that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you.

It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other areas.


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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March 6

Taking the Next Step
By Oswald Chambers

in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses. 2 Corinthians 6:4


When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of Almighty God to take the next step in your devotion to Him, in the reading and studying of His Word, in your family life, or in your duty to Him.

It takes much more of the grace of God, and a much greater awareness of drawing upon Him, to take that next step, than it does to preach the gospel.

Every Christian must experience the essence of the incarnation by bringing the next step down into flesh-and-blood reality and by working it out with his hands.

We lose interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragement, and no improvement, but only experience our everyday life with its trivial tasks.

The thing that really testifies for God and for the people of God in the long run is steady perseverance, even when the work cannot be seen by others.

And the only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you.

Never allow yourself to think that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself of the example of Christ in John 13:1-17.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

"When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R

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March 7

Undaunted Radiance
By Oswald Chambers

Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Romans 8:37


Paul is speaking of the things that might seem likely to separate or wedge in between the saint and the love of God; but the remarkable thing is that nothing can wedge in between the love of God and the saint.

These things can and do come in between the devotional exercises of the soul and God and separate individual life from God; but none of them is able to wedge in between the love of God and the soul of the saint.

The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit.

Paul says this is the reason we are more than conquerors in all these things, super-victors, with a joy we would not have but for the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.

The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces in the surf-rider the super joy of going clean through it. Apply that to our own circumstances, these very things tribulation, distress, persecution, produce in us the super joy; they are not things to fight.

We are more than conquerors through Him in all these things, not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. The saint never knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation," says Paul.

Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter.

The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the "greater works" will be done by prayer (see John 14:1213). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R

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March 8

The Surrendered Life
By Oswald Chambers

I have been crucified with Christ Galatians 2:20


To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things.

Being born again by the Spirit of God means that we must first be willing to let go before we can grasp something else.

The first thing we must surrender is all of our pretense or deceit. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin.

Actually, that is all He can take from us. And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness. But we must surrender all pretense that we are anything, and give up all our claims of even being worthy of God's consideration.

Once we have done that, the Spirit of God will show us what we need to surrender next. Along each step of this process, we will have to give up our claims to our rights to ourselves.

Are we willing to surrender our grasp on all that we possess, our desires, and everything else in our lives? Are we ready to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

We will suffer a sharp painful disillusionment before we fully surrender. When people really see themselves as the Lord sees them, it is not the terribly offensive sins of the flesh that shock them, but the awful nature of the pride of their own hearts opposing Jesus Christ.

When they see themselves in the light of the Lord, the shame, horror, and desperate conviction hit home for them.

If you are faced with the question of whether or not to surrender, make a determination to go on through the crisis, surrendering all that you have and all that you are to Him.

And God will then equip you to do all that He requires of you.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
To read the Bible according to God's providential order in your circumstances is the only way to read it, viz., in the blood and passion of personal life. Disciples Indeed, 387 R

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March 9

Turning Back or Walking with Jesus?
By Oswald Chambers

Do you also want to go away? John 6:67


What a penetrating question! Our Lord's words often hit home for us when He speaks in the simplest way. In spite of the fact that we know who Jesus is, He asks, "Do you also want to go away?"

We must continually maintain an adventurous attitude toward Him, despite any potential personal risk.

"From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66).

They turned back from walking with Jesus; not into sin, but away from Him. Many people today are pouring their lives out and working for Jesus Christ, but are not really walking with Him.

One thing God constantly requires of us is a oneness with Jesus Christ. After being set apart through sanctification, we should discipline our lives spiritually to maintain this intimate oneness.

When God gives you a clear determination of His will for you, all your striving to maintain that relationship by some particular method is completely unnecessary.

All that is required is to live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live your life with God in any other way than His way. And His way means absolute devotion to Him.

Showing no concern for the uncertainties that lie ahead is the secret of walking with Jesus.

Peter saw in Jesus only someone who could minister salvation to him and to the world. But our Lord wants us to be fellow laborers with Him.

In John 6:70 Jesus lovingly reminded Peter that he was chosen to go with Him. And each of us must answer this question for ourselves and no one else: "Do you also want to go away?"


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, 1465 R

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March 10

Being an Example of His Message
By Oswald Chambers

Preach the word! 2 Timothy 4:2


We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us.

The Son of God was His own message "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message.

Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God's purpose to make a person's life a holy example of God's message.

There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God's truth.

God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples' lives after Pentecost.

The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God's message in the flesh. "you shall be witnesses to Me" (Acts 1:8).

Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God's message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you.

Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to "set your words on fire" for His glory.




Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R

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March 11

Obedience to the "Heavenly Vision"
By Oswald Chambers

I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Acts 26:19


If we lose "the heavenly vision" God has given us, we alone are responsible not God.
We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth.

If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to "the heavenly vision" is to give our utmost for His highest our best for His glory.

This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God's vision.
But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.

"Though it tarries, wait for it" (Habakkuk 2:3).
We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision.

At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it.

Waiting for a vision that "tarries" is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul's welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.

Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms.

Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside?

That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen.

Let God send you out through His storm, and don't go until He does.

If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will "bear much fruit" (John 15:8).

It is essential that we live and "walk in the light" of God's vision for us (1 John 1:7).


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

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March 12

Total Surrender
By Oswald Chambers

Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." Mark 10:28


Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is "for My sake and the gospel's" (Mark 10:29).

It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result.
For example, "I'm going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy."

Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all.

We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, "No, Lord, I don't want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit.

I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, 'This is what God has done for me.' " Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.

Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse "Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can't go any further" (see Luke 9:57-62). "Then," Jesus says, "you 'cannot be My disciple' " (see Luke 14:26-33).

True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender.

Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.



Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

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March 13

God's Total Surrender to Us
By Oswald Chambers

For God so loved the world that He gave John 3:16


Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness.

The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him.

When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness.
But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself.

And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.

To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2).

The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.

If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender.

Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us.

In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us totally, unconditionally, and without reservation.

The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.


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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March 14

Yielding
By Oswald Chambers

you are that one's slaves whom you obey Romans 6:16


The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be.

If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.

If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth.

There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing.

(Remember what lust is "I must have it now," whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption.

You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. "He has anointed Meto proclaim liberty to the captives" (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).

When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can't.

You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing,
"He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself.

But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person's life.



Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help

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March 15

The Discipline of Dismay
By Oswald Chambers

As they followed they were afraid. Mark 10:32


At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love.

But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar "Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed" (Mark 10:32).

There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple's heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set "like a flint" (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me.

He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing.
All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement.

At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.

Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar.

When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don't know Him. We don't recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don't know how to begin to follow Him.

He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.

The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn.

The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11).

But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help

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March 16

The Master Will Judge
By Oswald Chambers

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ 2 Corinthians 5:10


Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, "appear before the judgment seat of Christ."

But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ's pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you.

Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you.

Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are.

One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, "Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there."

If you don't, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it.

It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll.
No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin.

No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7).

For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person.

The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R

slimecap
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Pale Rider said:

March 14
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older?
Hi Brother Pale Rider, Thank you for always providing a safe harbor during the storm to reflect and pray. I am grateful that you are a part of our lives. Sincerely, Sister slimecap
Pale Rider
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Thank you my dear sister in Christ.
I truly appreciate all that you bring to this site.
God bless and be with you always.
Pale Rider
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March 17

The Servant's Primary Goal
By Oswald Chambers

We make it our aimto be well pleasing to Him. 2 Corinthians 5:9


"We make it our aim." It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us.

It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only "to be well pleasing to Him."

It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal.

At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.

Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being "approved to God" (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him.

When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep "looking unto Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2).

Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lestI myself should become disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:27).

I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption.

My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life.

Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?


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

Pale Rider
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March 18

Will I Bring Myself Up to This Level?
By Oswald Chambers

perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1


"Therefore, having these promises." I claim God's promises for my life and look to their fulfillment, and rightly so, but that shows only the human perspective on them.

God's perspective is that through His promises I will come to recognize His claim of ownership on me.
For example, do I realize that my "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit," or am I condoning some habit in my body which clearly could not withstand the light of God on it? (1 Corinthians 6:19).

God formed His Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (see Galatians 4:19).

But I must begin to transform my natural life into spiritual life by obedience to Him.
God instructs us even in the smallest details of life. And when He brings you conviction of sin, do not "confer with flesh and blood," but cleanse yourself from it at once (Galatians 1:16).

Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk.

I must cleanse myself from all filthiness in my flesh and my spirit until both are in harmony with the nature of God.
Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God in me, or am I mentally rebellious and defiant?
Am I allowing the mind of Christ to be formed in me? (see Philippians 2:5).

Christ never spoke of His right to Himself, but always maintained an inner vigilance to submit His spirit continually to His Father.

I also have the responsibility to keep my spirit in agreement with His Spirit. And when I do, Jesus gradually lifts me up to the level where He lived a level of perfect submission to His Father's will where I pay no attention to anything else.

Am I perfecting this kind of holiness in the fear of God?

Is God having His way with me, and are people beginning to see God in my life more and more?

Be serious in your commitment to God and gladly leave everything else alone.

Literally put God first in your life.


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

Pale Rider
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March 19

Abraham's Life of Faith
By Oswald Chambers

He went out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8


In the Old Testament, a person's relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person's life.
This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family.
When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints.

This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason a life of knowing Him who calls us to go.

Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.

The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed.

We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles' wings, but is a life of day-in and day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31).

It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test.

Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. "Abraham believed God" (Romans 4:3).


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

Pale Rider
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March 20

Friendship with God
By Oswald Chambers

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Genesis 18:17


The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply feeling His presence occasionally in prayer.

This friendship means being so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith.

When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God's will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit.

You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately.

The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did?
He stopped because he still was lacking the level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was granted.

Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say, "Well, I don't know, maybe this is not God's will," then we still have another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be "that they may be one just as We are one" (John 17:22).

Think of the last thing you prayed about were you devoted to your desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit for yourself or to get to God? "For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8).

The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1459 R

Pale Rider
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March 21

Identified or Simply Interested?
By Oswald Chambers

I have been crucified with Christ Galatians 2:20


The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature.

I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself.

Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ." He did not say, "I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ," or, "I will really make an effort to follow Him" but "I have been identified with Him in His death."

Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

"it is no longer I who live." My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed.

"and the life which I now live in the flesh," not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh the life which others can see, "I live by faith in the Son of God."

This faith was not Paul's own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son of God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8).

It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits a faith that comes only from the Son of God.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L

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March 22

The Burning Heart
By Oswald Chambers

Did not our heart burn within us? Luke 24:32


We need to learn this secret of the burning heart.

Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart a heart that can go through anything.

It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of the distress we experience as Christians comes not as the result of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature.

For instance, the only test we should use to determine whether or not to allow a particular emotion to run its course in our lives is to examine what the final outcome of that emotion will be.

Think it through to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something that God would condemn, put a stop to it immediately.

But if it is an emotion that has been kindled by the Spirit of God and you don't allow it to have its way in your life, it will cause a reaction on a lower level than God intended.

That is the way unrealistic and overly emotional people are made. And the higher the emotion, the deeper the level of corruption, if it is not exercised on its intended level.

If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many of your decisions as possible irrevocable, and let the consequences be what they will.

We cannot stay forever on the "mount of transfiguration," basking in the light of our mountaintop experience (see Mark 9:1-9).

But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action. When God gives us a vision, we must transact business with Him at that point, no matter what the cost.

We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours of insight willed
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.


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

Pale Rider
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March 23

Am I Carnally Minded?
By Oswald Chambers

Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal? 1 Corinthians 3:3


The natural man, or unbeliever, knows nothing about carnality.
The desires of the flesh warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit warring against the flesh, which began at rebirth, are what produce carnality and the awareness of it

. But Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). In other words, carnality will disappear.

Are you quarrelsome and easily upset over small things?
Do you think that no one who is a Christian is ever like that?

Paul said they are, and he connected these attitudes with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens a spirit of malice or resentment in you?

If so, that is proof that you are still carnal. If the process of sanctification is continuing in your life, there will be no trace of that kind of spirit remaining.

If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn't ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right.

A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, "Oh, I can explain that."

When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.

What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it it is the most real thing you can imagine.

And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test.

You will find yourself saying, "If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!"

And you will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R

Pale Rider
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March 24

Decreasing for His Purpose
By Oswald Chambers

He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30


If you become a necessity to someone else's life, you are out of God's will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a "friend of the bridegroom" (John 3:29).

When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction.

And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don't try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ.

Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone's life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God's will and saying, "This person should not have to experience this difficulty."

Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, "You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him."

Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. "the friend of the bridegroomrejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:29-30).

This was spoken with joy, not with sadness at last they were to see the Bridegroom!
And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.

Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom's voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring.

Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard.

You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).


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

Pale Rider
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March 25

Maintaining the Proper Relationship
By Oswald Chambers

the friend of the bridegroom John 3:29


Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ.

If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction.

A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself.

Others will be left with this thought "What a fine person that man is!" That is not being a true "friend of the bridegroom" I am increasing all the time; He is not.

To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience.

Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience.

At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God's will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship being the "friend of the bridegroom."

Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person's focus away from Jesus Christ.

Instead of being friends "of the bridegroom," we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says "Sit," and He says "Go," go! When the body says "Eat," and He says "Fast," fast! When the body says "Yawn," and He says "Pray," pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R

Pale Rider
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March 26

Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity
By Oswald Chambers

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8


Purity is not innocence it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity.

Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained.

God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity.

If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right.

Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character it is "the pure in heart" who "see God."

God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished.

Not only must our "inner sanctuary" be kept right with God, but also the "outer courts" must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace.

Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our "outer court" is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things.

And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.

A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does.

Say to yourself, "That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!"


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances. Not Knowing Whither, 900 L

slimecap
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Pale Rider said:

March 26
God does not further our spiritual life in spite of our circumstances, but in and by our circumstances.
Dear Brother Pale Rider, These words will be posted on my family group text today. Thank you for your post that will assist 52 of my family members. My prayers for you, your wife and your family during this challenging time.
Sincerely, Sister Slimecap
Pale Rider
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Thank you so much my dear sister in Christ.
That means more to me than I can express.
May God bless you and your family and keep you all safe and in His care.
Pale Rider
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March 27

Spiritual Vision Through Personal Character
By Oswald Chambers

Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place Revelation 4:1


A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character.
If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, "Friend, come up even higher."

There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits.
Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different.

When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve.

Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move.

But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.

Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint.

Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.

Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven't turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually.

Have you heard God say, "Come up higher," not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?

"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?" (Genesis 18:17).

God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.



Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of GodThe Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L

Pale Rider
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March 28

Isn't There Some Misunderstanding?
By Oswald Chambers

"Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to Him, "are You going there again?" John 11:7-8


Just because I don't understand what Jesus Christ says, I have no right to determine that He must be mistaken in what He says.
That is a dangerous view, and it is never right to think that my obedience to God's directive will bring dishonor to Jesus.

The only thing that will bring dishonor is not obeying Him.
To put my view of His honor ahead of what He is plainly guiding me to do is never right, even though it may come from a real desire to prevent Him from being put to an open shame.

I know when the instructions have come from God because of their quiet persistence.
But when I begin to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate enter into my mind, I am bringing in an element that is not of God.

This will only result in my concluding that His instructions to me were not right.
Many of us are faithful to our ideas about Jesus Christ, but how many of us are faithful to Jesus Himself?

Faithfulness to Jesus means that I must step out even when and where I can't see anything (see Matthew 14:29).

But faithfulness to my own ideas means that I first clear the way mentally.
Faith, however, is not intellectual understanding; faith is a deliberate commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ, even when I can't see the way ahead.

Are you debating whether you should take a step of faith in Jesus, or whether you should wait until you can clearly see how to do what He has asked?

Simply obey Him with unrestrained joy. When He tells you something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a misunderstanding of what honors Him and what doesn't.

Are you faithful to Jesus, or faithful to your ideas about Him? Are you faithful to what He says, or are you trying to compromise His words with thoughts that never came from Him?

"Whatever He says to you, do it" (John 2:5).


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

Pale Rider
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March 29

Our Lord's Surprise Visits
By Oswald Chambers

You also be ready Luke 12:40


A Christian worker's greatest need is a readiness to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience has been.

This battle is not against sin, difficulties, or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in our service to Jesus Christ that we are not ready to face Jesus Himself at every turn.

The greatest need is not facing our beliefs or doctrines, or even facing the question of whether or not we are of any use to Him, but the need is to face Him.

Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical situations.

The only way a servant can remain true to God is to be ready for the Lord's surprise visits. This readiness will not be brought about by service, but through intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn.

This sense of expectation will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious.

In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle we must be spiritually real.

If you are avoiding the call of the religious thinking of today's world, and instead are "looking unto Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2), setting your heart on what He wants, and thinking His thoughts, you will be considered impractical and a daydreamer.

But when He suddenly appears in the work of the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready.

You should trust no one, and even ignore the finest saint on earth if he blocks your sight of Jesus Christ.


Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
Our danger is to water down God's word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R

Pale Rider
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March 30

Holiness or Hardness Toward God?
By Oswald Chambers

Hewondered that there was no intercessor Isaiah 59:16


The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer.

It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5).

Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, "But God, I just don't see how you are going to do this"?

This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic.
We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do.

We don't worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.

Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray?

Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic?
Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself.

Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him.

Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls.

Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever.


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

Pale Rider
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March 31

Heedfulness or Hypocrisy in Ourselves?
By Oswald Chambers

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. 1 John 5:16


If we are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites.

We see where other people are failing, and then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of ridicule and criticism, instead of turning it into intercession on their behalf.

God reveals this truth about others to us not through the sharpness of our minds but through the direct penetration of His Spirit.

If we are not attentive, we will be completely unaware of the source of the discernment God has given us, becoming critical of others and forgetting that God says, "he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death."

Be careful that you don't become a hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right with God before you worship Him yourself.

One of the most subtle and illusive burdens God ever places on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning others.

He gives us discernment so that we may accept the responsibility for those souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them (see Philippians 2:5).

We should intercede in accordance with what God says He will give us, namely, "life for those who commit sin not leading to death."

It is not that we are able to bring God into contact with our minds, but that we awaken ourselves to the point where God is able to convey His mind to us regarding the people for whom we intercede.

Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us?

He can't unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view concerning the people for whom we pray.

May we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with us as intercessors.


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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