We mistake defiance for devotion, telling God that we want to be abandoned to him, when really we just want to abandon our responsibilities. We refuse to take a spiritual inventory. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want when there’s something I haven’t paid for? Have I been asking God for liberty when I am withholding it from someone else? Is there someone I haven’t forgiven, someone to whom I haven’t been kind? #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
Thinking I am useful
The true character of the loveliness that counts for God is always unconscious. Conscious influence is smug and self-righteous and unchristian. If I start looking for evidence of my own usefulness, I instantly lose the bloom of the Lord’s touch. “Whoever believes in me,” Jesus said, “rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). If I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord. #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
Just sitting here
God intends for us to live a full-orbed life in Jesus Christ, a life defined by an unworrying oneness with him. But there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, when we find ourselves tumbling back into a habit of introspection we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, because it produces a continual wrestling. Self-consciousness isn’t sin. It may be caused by a nervous temperament or by suddenly finding ourselves in new circumstances. But it’s never God’s will that we should be less than absolutely complete in him. Anything that disturbs our rest in him must be cured at once. #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
What do you think
Have you ever been in this place of speechless sadness? Has God’s word come to you about something you’re very rich in and told you to “sell everything you have” (Luke 18:22)? Perhaps you are rich in your temperament or in your personal relationships of heart and mind. Perhaps God has told you to give them up, and you haven’t done it. If so, you’ve often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord won’t plead with you, but every time he meets you on that point, he will repeat, “If you want to follow me, these are the conditions.#GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
The word is always working
There was a reason Jesus let the ruler leave in this dejected state: our Lord knows perfectly well that once his word is heard, sooner or later it will bear fruit. The terrible thing is that some of us prevent it from bearing fruit in our present lives. I wonder what we will say when we do make up our minds to be devoted to him. One thing is certain: he will never shame us for our past refusals to hear him. #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
Take a moment
Never quench the Spirit, and do not despise him when he says to you, “Do not be blind about this thing anymore. You aren’t where you thought you were. Up until now I haven’t been able to reveal it to you, but I reveal it now.” When the Spirit disciplines you like this, let him have his way. Let him get you rightly related to God. ##GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching #leadership
I needed to pause here
Be merciful to God’s reputation. It’s easy to tarnish his character, because God never answers back; he never vindicates himself. It may seem that he is wasting his saints, because he sends them to places the world considers useless. Even those who are called by God may misunderstand their calling. We say, “God intends me to be here because I am so useful.” God puts his saints where they will glorify him, and we are not at all capable of judging where that will be. #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
What a time to contemplate
Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to him? Is he ministering in me as he did when he walked among us in the flesh? Is the Son of God in me going through his passion for his own purposes? The more one knows of the inner life of God’s most devoted servants, the more one sees God’s purpose: to “fill up . . . what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). There is always more “filling up” to be done. #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
Calming
The abiding reality is God; he is not changeable or fleeting. Yet he makes his order known in fleeting moments. When we are saved, we receive the power and the privilege of exhibiting the redemption in the passing moments of our lives. But to do this, we must remain in contact with abiding reality. Am I always in contact with reality, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong? I have to learn to identify myself with my Lord in holy communion in ways I haven’t even thought of yet, to live out each moment going about my Father’s business within my Father’s house. #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
Oneness
Our identification with the Lord is realized most strongly in prayer. Jesus said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why ask? So that you “may be one” as the Father and Son are one (John 17:22–23). Prayer is perfect and complete oneness with #GodisGood #leadership #oswaldchambers #faith #believe #soccer #coaching
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