Worship the Habit?

I had read this statement by Oswald Chambers in his book My Utmost for His Highest many, many years ago, and it changed the way I thought about and attended to my quiet time in the scriptures. I came across it again recently and want to share it with you. Perhaps it may impact you as it did me.

Your god may be your little Christian habit―the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. We say, 'I can't do that right now; this is my time alone with God.' No, this is your time alone with your habit.

I know that prayer and Bible reading are essential to faith building, and I don't think Chambers is downplaying a regular, routine time for it, but rather asking us to consider why we're doing it. I had a tendency to being tied to my routine instead of being tied to the Savior. I was easily annoyed and out of sorts when my schedule was upset or my attention was required someplace else, like caring for my children or answering the phone when someone needed to talk. I had God boxed in on my schedule, and when I missed "my quiet time with God," I felt undone. Not meaning to be irreverent, but I didn't get my fix that day.

God used Chambers' words to cause me to consider my ways and my thinking. I realized that my quiet time had been more about me than about God. My worship wasn't to be tied to my little quiet time corner. God is bigger than that, and my communion with him needed to enlarge as well, wherever and whenever that might be.

Painting ~ Reading in An Interior, Carl Holsoe 1863-1935

On Forgiveness

I'm continuing to read The Incomparable Christ by J. Oswald Sanders and following along as Nancy Leigh DeMoss discusses the chapter topics at Revive Our Hearts. It's a 40-day study as we prepare for the resurrection of Christ, and a few days beyond.

Sharing a brief statement from the book today about this verse.

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ~ Luke 23:34

“It may be objected that not all who participated in the crucifixion were forgiven. The answer is that in every act of forgiveness, two persons are involved. Forgiveness must be accepted as well as bestowed. The prayer of Christ made forgiveness available to every sinful man, but not all availed themselves of it.”

~J. Oswald Sanders, The Incomparable Christ

I do hope that  you have availed yourself of the forgiveness offered you. You can learn a lot more about Christ and why He died and was resurrected, proving His deity, at ReviveOurHeartscom.

God's Purpose or My Dream?

I've often considered over the years God's purpose for my life and made plans and preparations to fulfill it. I think it might have been too often, rather, that I was following my own heart's desires, because little or nothing came of many of my preparations, whether it was as simple as taking a meal to someone who wasn't home, taking a class in writing children's literature, taking a few counseling classes, or obtaining a graduate degree. But over time, I've come to realize that much of what I've done has been working out my own desires. That's not to say the preparations were unfruitful, but that the fruit was found in the process rather than in the outcome.

Sharing a similar thought from Oswald Chambers today.

We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process – that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.

God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present: if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.

~ from My Utmost for His Highest

Painting ~ A Pensive Moment, Daniel Ridgway Knight 1839-1924

Wiki Commons public domain

The Deepest Well of Gratitude

The thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being 

is that God has forgiven sin.

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

~Autumn Lake at Whitney Court, Gail Hampshire
via Flkr, Wikipedia Commons public domain
CC 2.0 Generic