Peace

The Great Life

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you:...Let not your heart be troubled." John 14:27

Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God; there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go.  Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight.  As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity.  The attitude must be one of compete reliance on God.  When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends.

Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus.  Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not.  If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Ghost, not of your decisions.  Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.

My questions come whenever I cease to obey.  When I have obeyed God, the problems never come between me and God, they come as probes to keep the mind going on with amazement at the revelation of God.  Any problem that comes between God and myself springs out of disobedience; any problem, and there are many, that is alongside me while I obey God, increases my ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.

From the book My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers.

In the Matter of Drudgery

June 15th: GET A MOVE ON

"And beside this... add..." 2 Peter 1:5

In the Matter of Drudgery. You have inherited the Divine nature, says Peter (v.4), now screw your attention down and form habits, give diligence, concentrate. "Add" means all that character means. No man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character, he has to make character. Nor are we born with habits; we have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us. We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character. The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do.

 "Jesus took a towel...and began to wash the disciples' feet."

There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task. Routine is God's way of saving us between times of inspiration. Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.
It is the "adding" that is difficult. We say we do not expect God to carry us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we did! The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I do my duty, not for duty's sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement. 

This is from the book 'My Utmost For His Highest' by Oswald Chambers. It is a compilation of some of his lectures given at a Bible Training College from the years 1911 to 1917.

I marvel at this kind of language. Sometimes I wish I was born centuries ago.
 But God put me here on purpose.
It is beautiful how God can speak to us through words written so long ago. It is beautiful how God never changes and what was true then is true now. It is beautiful that there is one Truth. Not a bunch of little truths based on perspective therefore meaning there are no truths.
Jesus is the Truth and the Way and the Life. He's the Only Way, and the only way worth going.

God is love and He loves you.