Fellowship in the Gospel --
Just wana share with you an excerpt from Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest" which spoke to me this week:
"Fellow labourers in the gospel of Christ." 1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by 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 -- Gos has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing forever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.
I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say -- Lord, this gives me such a heartache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himelf and in His goodness.
"Fellow labourers in the gospel of Christ." 1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by 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 -- Gos has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing forever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.
I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say -- Lord, this gives me such a heartache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himelf and in His goodness.
posted by Grace at 10/07/2007 09:34:00 PM
2 Comments:
This passage is interesting, but I disagree with one thing he says. I think it is alright to tell God how we feel about what we are doing in life i.e. "This is such a heartache". Of course we musn't say it as a complaint, but more as a prayer, asking God to change our heart so that it might not be a heartache anymore. I often have to do that.
ya, as much respect I have for Chambers too, I feel that that statement makes me more of a fake than an honest Christian. God loved Jonah although he vehemently wanted to disobey God as allowing the enemy a chance to repent was a 'heartache' for him and his nation. Still, God did not pass him out as a clog in the Bible. I don't know why should anyone wear a perfect Christian mask before their Maker. He is, afterall, close to the brokenhearted.
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