Posted on 12/22/2006 3:25:01 AM PST by .30Carbine
When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16 ). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.
In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.
Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.
In 1910 Chambers married Gertrude Hobbs. They had one daughter, Kathleen, who still resides in London (as of 1992).
In 1911 he founded and became principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham, London, where he lectured until the school was closed in 1915 because of World War I. In October 1915 he sailed for Zeitoun, Egypt (near Cairo), where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops as a YMCA chaplain. He died there November 15, 1917, following surgery for a ruptured appendix.
My Utmost for His Highest, his best-known book, has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935 and in this, the last decade of the century, remains in the top ten titles of the religious book bestseller list with millions of copies in print. It has become a Christian classic. [from the flyleaf of the book]
Absolutely no flaming! These daily threads are intended to be devotional in nature. If a particular day's offering says nothing to you, please just go on and wait for the next day. Consider these threads a DMZ of sorts, a place where a perpetual truce is in effect and a place where all other arguments and disagreements from other times and places are left behind.
I can attest from personal experience that reading from Chambers daily will almost certainly change - not one's faith - but one's perspective of his/her own faith, and open up new vistas in your spiritual life. If - when - this happens to a reader of these threads, and they choose to share what has happened within them - we are treading on hallowed ground. Be respectful.
- Religion Moderator
Thanks, Carbine, praying to start this day completely surrendered to the God who made and loves me.
Yes, it is, isn't it. Thanks for posting these, .30!
I tried to ping you to post 6 and it didn't work for some reason.
Yes, it is, isn't it.
Yes, it is, and thank you for your comment.
The number one greatest new desire God has brought me into is that the world may know that He is Lord, for to know Him, and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent, this is Eternal Life!
When I anticipate, prepare for, pray earnestly about witnessing opportunities, I find I must still push down and push back my intellect, so that Christ will be Sovereign over my heart, my tongue, my words. In prayer I earnestly listen to discern the voice of my intellect as different from the Voice of The Almighty Lord. There is a particular family member for whom I have been seeking words of witness for Christmas Day: truly I've wrestled before God in prayer against my own intellect and toward being more filled with Christ, the Word and Spirit of the Living God.
As Chambers follows the lead of the Word in this devotion, truly, no man can come to Christ unless the Father draws Him, and again it is recorded, "No man knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."
Even so, as Thou hast given this Great Desire to me, my Lord, keep at bay my intellect and bring to the fore Thyself, The True Witness, The Very Power of Life, amen.
Oh may we ever always do so! From beginning to end! Thank you, Vision.
Truly, God is always speaking in all of creation.
Sadly, we are not always listening for His Voice.
Those moments of epiphany transport us momentarily into a rapturous glory that is a sweet foretaste of the Life with God to come!
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