More than any book quoted in my Quotation Journal, Oswald Chambers' classic My Utmost for His Highest whispers God's Truth into my ear, if I but am willing to hear. Page after page is covered in fading sepia ink with Chambers' wise, wise words, birthed of the Holy Spirit.
When I look at the lives that surround mine, I see such pain, such loss: the loss of faith in a spouse and of hope for a marriage; the loss of health as cancer returns; the loss of a beloved father; the loss of significant portions of a bodily organ due to a surgeon's error; the loss of a mother/grandmother in the ruins of the Haitian earthquake; the loss of homes and loved ones for so many in Haiti; the loss of the ability to walk, puzzling doctors and specialists; the loss of wife and family due to sin ... and the list marches on -- tearing apart families, leaving grief in its wake.
Oswald Chambers writes of these times from a time removed from ours, but grief, loss, sorrow -- these shadows over the human soul are timeless, ageless. The pain was as real then as it is now, and Chambers offers a wisdom divinely inspired -- a hope, a confidence that we need now more than ever.
So I offer you a few gems from the pen of Oswald Chambers:
"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.... One of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success." (March 19)
"Waiting for the vision that tarries is the test of our loyalty to God." (March 11)
"If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to to put it right; He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right." (March 23)
"Faith is not a pathetic sentiment, but a robust confidence built on the fact that God is holy love.... Faith is the heroic effort of your life; you fling yourself in reckless confidence on God." (May 8)
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