Oswald Chambers

I have been using "My Utmost for His Highest" for years as a devotional book. Even though I've already gone through it several times, it continues to stay fresh for me. Here are just a few thoughts of his that have really been impressed on me.

John 16:33 ~ "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

"An average view of Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble.  It is deliverance in trouble - which is very different."

"God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.  The strain is the strength."

"If you spend yourself physically you become exhausted; But if you spend yourself spiritually, you get more strength."

"We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God's purpose, we are taken up into God's purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception what God is aiming at, as we go on it gets more and more vague."

"God's aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at."

 These last two quotes are especially meaningful to me.  And God used a natural instance to open my eyes even more regarding being "short-sighted" when it comes to His working.

When coming home from somewhere I usually turn onto our block and drive past our house to the end of our street and make a U-turn at the corner so I can be facing in the right direction to park in front of the house.  Well, recently, while driving home with the kids in the car, I decided to just pass our street and go down one more block and come around, avoiding the U-turn at the corner.  Well, my youngest exclaimed, "Mom, I thought we were going home, you passed our street!"  I said, "We are going home."  And he replied, "No, we're not, you passed our street."  The other kids in the car made an attempt to explain to him what I was doing.  I thought it was interesting that it seemed that he couldn't understand but mainly because he simply would not accept the explanation.

Our Father showed me, by His Holy Spirit, that this is what I do.  And, apparently, I do it often.  Many times when I question the work of God in my life and my family's it's because I am short-sighted and I look upon His work as "missing the mark".  Sometimes, I'm not even recognizing God's hand.  The other interesting and startling thing to me about this quote of Mr. Chambers is his usage of the phrase "missing the mark".   The Greek word hamartia is translated sin in our New Testament, and it is deeply rooted in the idea of missing the mark.  So, in the same way, when I consider God to be somehow missing the mark in the way that Oswald Chambers mentiones it, I am considering that work of God to be sin.  Looking at it this way definitely hit home with me and has truly humbled me and brought me to a new place and way of thinking about Jehovah and Yeshua. 


Thank you Yeshua for being our Redeemer, You are truly the Beautiful One, the Christ, the Lamb for sinners slain.  Praise and glory and honor be to You and our Sovereign Almighty Father.  Glory to God!!  Praise and Adoration be lifted to You beautiful Savior.  Thank You, Praise You!  Yeshua Christ the One Messiah!  Hallelujah!  Amen!