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Posted 11-4-24
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (Modern Classic Edition)
Out of the Wreck, I Rise
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35
God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble…” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship with God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors…” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our ingenuity or our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.
“Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event, but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it cannot “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you (Matthew 13:22).
“Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie and that there is no such thing as justice?
“Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or something extraordinary happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of these things that come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck, I rise” every time.
Posted 11-4-24
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (First Edition) - Excerpts
The Purpose of God — That we will be one with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
"God is not concerned about our plans; He does not say — Do you want to go through this bereavement; this upset? He allows these things for His purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, nobler men and women; or they are making us more captious and fault-finding, more insistent upon our own way."
The purpose of God is not to answer our prayers, but by our prayers, we come to discern the mind of God. There is one prayer God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus — “that they may be one, even as We are One. John 17:21” Ask yourself, Are you as close to Jesus Christ as that? Are you helping God to answer that prayer? Is that your heart's desire?