Thursday, November 20, 2008

Oswald Chambers on Siege

I read from Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest", almost every day. I couldn't help but notice the "siege" theme in what I read this morning. Instead of relating it to you, I've decided to simply share it. Surrender!

. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow, Lon, you are really getting to me with this thread on seige. Keep them coming!

I'm not sure the sanctified person cannot state his or her purpose in life so much as we can't state it fully to the extent of God's purpose for us. As you know, I help people in the non-secular world discover their purpose, among other things. In fact, this is one struggle that can transform non-secular coaching into a truly secular, spiritual, holy experience - for both the coach and the person-being-coached. Oswald Chambers offers enlightening, and Godly, perspective to my work, though. Thank you for sharing this. I am finding your Daily Build Up to be a greatly anticipated Joy.