Chambers on faith

Oswald Chambers made the most of a life cut short at age 43 in 1917. His wife "Biddy" compiled his notes and lectures into what would become the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest. First published in 1927, Utmost became one of the most-read books of the Christian world.

Nearly 100 years out, Chambers' insightful teachings affirm the timelessness of the Bible, applicable to all of life's questions.

I want God to answer my questions, but often I forget that the simple definition of faith is taking a step without knowing the end result. On June 8, Chambers expresses this concept so well, skillfully comparing the faith walk to a sea journey. Here's a portion of it:

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.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:17

Refuse to continue learning. Chambers has challenged me to learn more from God's word and to get out of the harbor of my spiritual complacency.

I love my dog-eared copy of My Utmost, but you can  access the daily readings at http://www.myutmost.org/. And his bio is here.