Oswald Chambers firmly believed in the concept of “seed thoughts”—brief, pithy sayings designed to arrest attention and stimulate thinking. The entry for December 9 perhaps best expresses his conviction on how to affect a person’s mind and behavior:Our Lord was never impatient. He simply planted seed thoughts in the disciples’ minds and surrounded them with the atmosphere of His own life. We get impatient and take men by the scruff of the neck and say: “You must believe this and that.” You cannot make a man see moral truth by persuading his intellect. “When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all truth.“ (rv) At the Bible Training College, London, and at the Zeitoun YMCA Camp in Egypt, Chambers always posted a daily thought on a centrally located notice board. The daily words ranged from a spiritual challenge to humor. After a deluge that left the Zeitoun camp flooded, the board outside Oswald’s study hut read: “Closed during submarine manoeuvres!” The day before, the board had proclaimed: “Beware! there is a religious talk here each evening!”While Mrs. Chambers was still in Egypt after her husband’s death, she published the first Seed Thoughts Calendar, containing a brief thought from Oswald’s teachings for each day of the year. The small, thin book fit easily into the breast pocket of a soldier’s uniform. Other versions of the Seed Thoughts Calendar followed through the years.
Run Today's Race
God will never begin to teach me His will in other matters until I do what I know. Theoretic knowledge becomes our condemnation—“If ye know these things blessed are ye if ye do them” (rv).
A man can never be the same again, I don’t care who he is, after having heard Jesus Christ preached. He may say he pays no attention to it; he may appear to have forgotten all about it, but he is never quite the same, and at any moment truths may spring up into his consciousness that will destroy all his peace and happiness.
Am I going to live a sequestered life on the mount and never come down into the demon-possessed valley, never prove that what I saw on the mount is sufficient to enable me to face what I find in the valley?Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, (United Kingdom: Marshall Morgan & Scott) c1968.
It is one of the most flattering things to go and rescue the degraded, one of the social passions of mankind, but it is not the most Christian. It is quite another thing to proclaim to men who are among the best, that they have to give up their right to themselves to Jesus Christ.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, (United Kingdom: Marshall Morgan & Scott) c1968.
Ron, I had to laugh when I read this. (laugh at myself) I can see this is so true. Though I feel called by the Lord to bring a message of surrender (giving up our rights to self), I have been trying also to get myself lost in the work of the "degraded"- though I know it is needed also. It would be much easier to stay in this latter work instead of the first. It actually scares me a bit to think I may have to carry through with the first. :-o In His love, Chanin
It would be much easier to stay in this latter work instead of the first. It actually scares me a bit to think I may have to carry through with the first.Hi ChaninIn an era when so many use the scripture like a blunt weapon Oswald Chambers had that disturbing authenticity which the 'speakings of God' always convey sharper than any two-edged swording, piercing...
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalms 27:1)
Have you never met the person whose religious life is so exact that you are terrified to come near him? Never have an exercise of religion which blots God clean out.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, (United Kingdom: Marshall Morgan & Scott) c1968.
To understand the tiniest bit of truth about God is to love it with all our heart and soul and mind; all that lies dark and obscure just now, is one day going to be as clear, as radiantly and joyously clear, as the bit we have seen.
What an unspeakable thrill and joy it will be to hear the Father say to you and I, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward!" Praise you Lord God in the highest. Blessed be Your Holy Name.
Experiences of what God has done for me are only stepping-stones; the one great note is—I trust in the Lord Jesus, God’s providence can do with me what it likes, make the heavens like brass, earth like hell, my body loathsome (as Job’s was), but the soul that is trusting in Jesus gets where Job got, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Remarkable clarity.Recommended reading.Ron, keep on posting. . .Lars
If we do only what we are inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever! There are unemployables in the spiritual domain, spiritually decrepit people, who refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
A great many Christian workers worship their work. The one concern of the workers should be concentration on God, and this will mean that all other margins of life are free with the freedom of a child—a worshipping child, not a wayward child.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
November 16 \tGod will put you through many mills that are not meant for you, mills you would not be put through but that He wants to make you good bread for His little ones to eat. You can see now the meaning of that hard place you have been in.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
November 17We say, “Seeing is believing,” but it isn’t true. Belief is necessary before we can interpret what we see; we will explain things away if we don’t believe them possible. “. . . because thou hast seen Me, hast thou believed?” (John 20:29 rv mg).Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
November 18A good way to measure our spiritual life is to ask ourselves—What is it that produces the greatest perturbation in me? Is it the sins of men against men, or is it the sins of spiritual pride against God?Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
November 19\tOur attitude to the Bible is a stupid one, we come to the Bible for proof of God’s existence: the Bible has no meaning for us unless we know that God does exist. The Bible states and affirms facts for the benefit of those who believe in God, those who don’t believe in God can tear it to bits if they like.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
This is very true, I think only time the bible says something even like this would be twice in Psalms:The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.The bible does say (I think) that men are without excuse to not believe in God in Romans 1:20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:My only question is could an atheist come to believe in God by reading the bible?Perhaps this will need to be moved to create a new thread.
November 20Always remain alert to the fact that where one man has gone back is exactly where anyone may go back (1 Corinthians 10:13). You have gone through the big crisis, now be alert over the least things. . . . Do not forecast where the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the peril.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
21 NovemberBy surrendering ourselves to quiet communion with God, by resting for a while from all our thinking and acting and serving, by leaving all things for once in our Heavenly father’s hands, secret wounds are healed, gathering unbelief is dispelled, and displaced armour refixed.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
22 NovemberJesus Christ can put into the man, whose energy has been sapped by sin and wrong until he is all but in hell, a life so strong and full that Satan has to flee whenever he meets him. Jesus Christ can make any life more than conqueror as they draw on His Resurrection life.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
[23 November[/b]God does not give us overcoming life: He gives life to the man who overcomes. In every case of tribulation, from gnats to the cruelty of the sword, we take the step as though there were no God to assist us, and we find He is there.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
24 November\tThe afflictions after sanctification are not meant to purify us, but to make us broken bread in the Hands of our Lord to nourish others. Many Christian workers are like Ephraim, “a cake not turned”; they are faddists and cranks, and when they are given out for distribution they produce indigestion instead of giving nourishment.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
25 November\tIf you sow vows, resolutions, aspirations, emotions, you will reap nothing but exhaustion (“. . . and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it,” Leviticus 26:16) but sow the Word of God, and, as sure as God is God, it will bring forth fruit.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
26 November\tThe greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ—“It is finished.” That is the last word in the Redemption of man.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
27 NovemberThe springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
28 November\tThe first thing to do in examining the power that dominates me is to take hold of the unwelcome fact that I am responsible for being thus dominated because I have yielded. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame for it because at a point, away back, I yielded myself to myself. Likewise, if I obey God, I do so because I have yielded myself to Him.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
[29 NOvember [/b]“What I tell you in darkness”—watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there, keep your mouth shut. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
30 November“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” How much evil has begun to threaten you today? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying; “Now what are you going to do next month—this summer?” “Be anxious for nothing,” Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the “Much more” of your Heavenly Father.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
1 DecemberOur Lord took words that were despised and transfigured their meaning; He did things that were commonplace and sordid and ordinary and transfigured them. Our Lord was the unconscious light in the midst of the most ordinary circumstances conceivable.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
2 DecemberIn the New Testament, “world” means the system of things which has been built on God’s earth, the system of religion or of society or of civilisation that never takes Jesus Christ into account.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
3 December“Ye are the light of the world.” We have the idea that we are going to shine in heaven, but we are to shine down here, “In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation” (Philippians 2:15). We are to shine as lights in the world in the squalid places, and it cannot be done by putting on a brazen smile, the light must be there all the time.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
4 DecemberIt is an easy business to preach, an appallingly easy thing to tell other people what to do; it is another thing to have God’s message turned into a boomerang—“You have been teaching these people that they should be full of peace and joy, but what about yourself? Are you full of peace and joy?”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
5 DecemberDo we “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth”? He will take us through the strange dark things—we must follow Him “whithersoever He goeth.” “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
6 DecemberWhen we have a certain belief, we kill God in our lives, because we do not believe Him, we believe our beliefs about Him and do what Job’s friends did—bring God and human life to the standard of our beliefs and not to the standard of God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
7 DecemberJesus Christ says, “Except ye . . . become as little children . . .” A little child is certain of its parents, but uncertain about everything else, therefore it lives a perfectly delightful healthy life.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Beloved,we are mostly guilty of makeing Him in our image*, we read selective, we belief selective, but we need to aprehend Christ as He is. We make Him in evangalical terms our buddy, and mate, and forget that He is a consumeing Fire, and The Holy and Righteous Judge, and that if John in Revelation, sees Christ as He is, he doesn't walk up to Him, saying, hi buddy!.(and John walked so close with Jesus in real life) NO! he falls as dead before Him, what are we gonna do when we see Him in all His Glory?We love to hear about His Love, oww, but don't talk about His Anger and His Wrath and His coming Judgement and His Righteousness. Yeah we talk Jesus is coming, but we ain't telling them they're gonna perrish when they stay sinners who love their sin and refuse the Cross.Thanks philologos for this devotions :-) it encourage me to aprehend Christ as He is.Let we therefor, bend our knees for Jesus Christ and die upon The Cross, and ask if we may know Him as He is, and that He may kill "the image we made"* quotes from:The Cross compilation
8 DecemberWhen we know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, it means we are free from anxiety, free from carefulness, so that, during the twenty-four hours of the day, we do what we ought to do all the time, with the strength of life bubbling up with real spontaneous joy.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
9 DecemberOur Lord was never impatient. He simply planted seed thoughts in the disciples’ minds and surrounded them with the atmosphere of His own life. We get impatient and take men by the scruff of the neck and say: “You must believe this and that.” You cannot make a man see moral truth by persuading his intellect. “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
10 DecemberNothing has any power to alter a man save the incoming of the life of Jesus and that is the only sign that he is born again.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
11 DecemberThe man who has seen Jesus can never be daunted; the man who has only a personal testimony as to what Jesus has done for him may be daunted, but nothing can turn the man who has seen Him; he endures “as seeing Him Who is invisible.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
12 DecemberCan God keep me from stumbling this second? Yes. Can He keep me from sin this second? Yes. Well, that is the whole of life. You cannot live more than a second at a time. If God can keep you blameless this second, He can do it the next. No wonder Jesus Christ said “Let not your heart be troubled”! We do get troubled when we do not remember the amazing power of God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
13 DecemberWhen a so-called rationalist points out sin and iniquity and disease and death, and he says “How does God answer that?” you have always a fathomless answer—the Cross of Christ.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
14 DecemberIf you only take your own ideas, you will never know the truth. The whole truth is the only truth, and the whole truth is Jesus Christ—“I am . . . the Truth.” Any bit of truth is an error if taken alone.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
15 DecemberThe majority of present day preachers understand only the blessings that come to us from the Cross, they are apt to be devoted to certain doctrines which flow from the Cross. Paul preached one thing only: the crucified Christ, “Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
16 DecemberWho of us can see, behind chance and in chance, God? Who of us can see the finger of God in the weather? When we are in living touch with God we begin to discern that nothing happens by chance.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
17 DecemberIf you put your faith in your experience anything that happens—toothache, indigestion, an east wind, incongenial work—is likely to upset the experience, but nothing that happens can ever upset God or the almighty reality of the Redemption; once based on that, you are as eternally sure as God Himself.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
18 DecemberIn the Cross we may see the dimensions of Divine love. The Cross is not the cross of a man, but an exhibition of the heart of God. At the back of the wall of the world stands God with His arms outstretched, and every man driven there is driven into the arms of God. The Cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God (Romans 8:35-39).Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
19 December“. . . He only is my rock and my salvation” (Psalm 62:6). A rock conveys the idea of an encircling guard, as that of a mother watching her child who is learning to walk; should the child fall, he falls into the encircling love and watchfulness of the mother’s care. “The Lord is my rock,” my encircling guard. Where did the Psalmist learn this truth? In the school of silent waiting upon God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
20 December“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow” (Matthew 6:28). A lily is not always in the sunshine; for the greater part of the year it is hidden in the earth. “How they grow”—in the dark, only for a short time are they radiantly beautiful and sweet. . . We can never be lilies in the garden unless we have spent time as bulbs in the dark, totally ignored. That is how to grow.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
21 DecemberWhen it is a question of God’s Almighty Spirit, never say “I can’t.” Never let the limitation of natural ability come in. If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in us.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
22 DecemberNever forget that our capacity in spiritual matters is measured by the promises of God. Is God able to fulfil His promises? Our answer depends on whether we have received the Holy Spirit.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
23 December\t“Add to your faith virtue . . .” (2 Peter 1:5). “Add” means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; and God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do all that ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
24 DecemberHave you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries always. I will not trust where I cannot see, that is where infidelity begins. The only cure for infidelity is obedience to the Spirit.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
25 DecemberJesus Christ is God incarnate coming into human flesh from the outside, His Life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the lowliest door. Have I allowed my personal life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God?Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
26 DecemberIf I put my trust in human beings first, I will end in despairing of everyone; I will become bitter, because I have insisted on man being what no man ever can be—absolutely right. Never trust anything but the grace of God in yourself or in anyone else.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
27 DecemberThere are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says if it hinders you in following His precepts, cut it off. This line of discipline is the sternest one that ever struck mankind.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
28 December \tPut all “supposing” on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
29 DecemberA river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fullness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth. We have nothing to do with the out-flow—“This is the work of God that ye believe...” God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
30 DecemberIn tribulation, misunderstanding, slander, in the midst of all these things, if our life is hid with Christ in God, He will keep us at ease. We rob ourselves of the marvellous revelation of this abiding companionship of God. “God is our refuge”—nothing can come through that shelter.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
31 DecemberThe ideal is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us—“I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine.” God wants to use us as He used His own Son.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
1 January 2005God is so immediately near and so immensely strong that I get more and more joyous in my confidence in Him and less and less careful how I feel.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
2 JanuaryThe very life of Jesus is given to us unstintedly if we will identify ourselves with His Death. At the back of us stands the Risen Life of Jesus that nothing can overcome.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
3 JanuaryThe Spirit of God alters my dominating desires; He alters the thing that matters, and a universe of desires I had never known before, suddenly comes on the horizon.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
4 JanuaryIt is a great moment when we realise we have the power to trample on certain moods, a tremendous emancipation to get rid of every kind of self-consciousness and heed one thing only: the relationship between God and myself.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
5 JanuaryFaith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
6 JanuaryIt is easy to turn our religious life into a cathedral for beautiful memories, but there are feet to be washed, hard flints to be walked over, people to be fed. Very few of us go there, but that is the way the Son of God went.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Believe what you saw when you were in the light, and when you are in the ploughed field and God’s moral seasons are going over you—the remainder of the cold, hard winter, the beginnings of the strange, painful stirrings of spring—keep abandoned to Him. He knows the seasons to bring to your soul as He does in the natural world.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The tendency is strong to say—“O God won’t be so stern as to expect me to give up that!” but He will; “He won’t expect me to walk in the light so that I have nothing to hide,” but He will; “He won’t expect me to draw on His grace for everything” but He will.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
God narrows our “shan’ts” to one explosive point. I don’t need to go that way, but God will have to bring me there if I persist in the little disobediences which no one knows but myself, because it is engendering in me a spirit God cannot allow.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The Christian life is the simplest, the gayest, the most regardless-of-consequences life, lived as it is taught by Jesus. The plan of our life comes through the haphazard moments, but behind it is the order of God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Prayer with most of us is turned into pious platitude, it is a matter of emotion, mystical communion with God. It is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says—“Every one that asketh receiveth.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Humility is the one stamp of a saint. Beware of the complacency of superiority when God’s grace has done anything for you.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
When you are brought face to face with something in God’s word, watch your circumstances: the tyranny of things will either imperil your faith or increase it.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
God has to rebuke us for our flippant, unthinking familiarity with Jesus Christ; we have forgotten Who He is.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Beware of the storms of spiritual misgiving. The security of the saint’s life is his relationship to Jesus and obedience to His Word.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
It is easy to trust in God when we have not to hunt for money, but immediately the penny that is not there looms large, we allow the mosquito of worry to irritate our whole life away from rest in God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
If you are a saint God will continually upset your programme, and if you are wedded to your programme you will become that most obnoxious creature under heaven, an irritable saint.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The Apostle James will have nothing to do with pious talk that is not backed by the life. Pious words without works are so much wind.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Reserve gives us an air of aloofness, and though it may start with being outward only, it will slowly and surely eat its way into the heart and result in a base form of self-centredness.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
A sense of possession is sufficient to render us spiritually dense. Watch the havoc the winds of God play with possessions.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
There is never any risk in love that is “talked.” If love is reticent it becomes a secret treasure that enervates. Keep it in the open, have nothing hidden to brood over.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The resentment of discipline of any kind will warp the whole life away from God’s purpose.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
God always answers the stumbling questions which arise out of personal problems. We bristle with interrogation points, but we don’t wait for the answer because we do not intend to listen to it.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
When God puts His Spirit within us, we can say—“even now” it is as black as night, but I will not accept a slander against Jesus Christ.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
“Until Christ be formed in you”—that brings me to the margin of my responsibility. Am I allowing Him to manifest Himself, or am I saying: “I shall not submit to that.” Then the blow will fall on the Son of God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The one great enemy of discipleship is obstinacy, spiritual obstinacy. We deify independence and wilfulness and call them by the wrong name.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Ron, these last two really make me realize that we are sometimes deceived by our own hearts. I have thought many times that I was submitted or that I was not defying Him- yet here I was all the time. I suppose somewhere down deep I must have known. But we really have to pray that the Lord will show us what is hidden and bring to the surface those things that we don't know about.In His love, Chanin
When we lie like fallow ground, God puts in new seeds and the harvest is the ripe fruit of God; otherwise it is ripe fruit of naturalness only. Lying fallow is always the secret of spiritual growth.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
When by God’s grace you become possessed of a new disposition, your nerves which have been used to obeying the wrong disposition are sure to say “I can’t” and you must say “You must,” and to your amazement you find you can.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Let me plead with you, as though Christ besought you, do not be disobedient to the heavenly vision. There is only one purpose for your life, and that is the satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Interest is natural, attention must be by effort. One of the great needs of the Christian life is to have a place where we deliberately attend to realities. That is the real meaning of prayer.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Christianity makes no allowance for heroic moods. It is easy to feel heroic in an armchair, when everything goes well, but Christianity deals with God’s standard in the common days when you are out of your armchair, and when things are not going well.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
What we call crises, God ignores, and what God reveals as the great critical moments of a man’s life we look on as humdrum commonplaces. When we become spiritual we discern that God was in the humdrum commonplace and we never knew it.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
We would never know that our spirit was wrong unless Jesus rebuked it, because it is so emphatically right according to our reason (Luke 9:55). The one thing to mark is the effect on our conscience—does my spirit bear the mark of native self-assertiveness or of disciplined self-conquest?Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.ps apologies for the gap, I have been launching a website.
The reason there is so much going off on side issues is because of spiritual insubordination that refuses to wed itself to Jesus Christ and His Word.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
It is possible for practical Christian work to be active disobedience to God. We would rather work for God than sit for one moment before Him and let the Spirit riddle us through with His light.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The cross of discipleship is that I daily and hourly delight to tell my human nature that I am not my own, I no longer claim my right to myself.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Insist on taking the initiative for God in every place you are in. As a worker, always determine to give God “the first foot.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.” It is this state of mind and heart which is absolutely free to do the duty that lies nearest without any flutter.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
You will always know whether you believe in God personally by your impertinent insistence on being an amateur providence for someone else.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
To be continually worrying—“Does God want me to say this or do that?” is to be in an infirm condition. There is no light of the knowledge of the glory of God in that, it means I am a self-conscious spiritual prig.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but it is not the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Men do wrong things because they have no dominant interest, once a crisis comes, the vacuity is gone.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
There was nothing secular in our Lord’s life and in the saint the sacred and the secular must be all His, the one must express the other. If I have to turn consciously from the shallow to the profound, there is something radically wrong, not in the shallow, but in the profound.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
It takes a long time to realise that God has no respect for anything I bring Him; all He wants from me is unconditional surrender.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
There is nothing that detects spiritual rottenness so unerringly as to ask not with the lips, but with the will. “Ye shall ask what ye will” said Jesus.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
The great characteristic of the supernatural grace of God in a life is put by Jesus on the line of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the supernatural manifestation of a miracle in you and me.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
In every place you are in, insist on taking the initiative for God. Every time you pray your horizon is altered, your disposition and relationship to things is altered, and you wonder why it is you don’t pray more.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
If there is the tiniest grudge in your mind against any one, from that second, your spiritual penetration into the knowledge of God stops.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
“I have chosen you.” Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you. Why is God at work in me, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as He chooses?—for one purpose only—that He may be able to say, “This is My man, My woman.”Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.
Humility is not an ideal, it is the unconscious result of the life being rightly related to God.Chambers, Oswald, Run Today’s Race, c1968.