MY THOUGHT: Wow. What an incredibly rich week. Nearly every day I found something that spoke to my heart and spurred thoughts that could fill pages. But I’ve decided to let Oswald’s words speak for themselves. To allow the Holy Spirit to whisper truth between the lines to your situation. Your condition. Your particular need.
June 11th – “…and I will give you rest,” i.e. I will stay you. Not – I will put you to bed and hold your hand and sing you to sleep; but – I will get you out of bed, out of the languor and exhaustion, out of the state of being half dead while you are alive; I will imbue you with the spirit of life…
June 12th – “Thou art Simon, thou shalt be called Cephas.” God writes the new name on those places only in our lives where He has erased the pride and self-sufficiency and self-interest. Some of us have the new name in spots only, like spiritual measles.
June 13th – Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you.
June 14th – With our Lord the inner abiding was unsullied; He was at home with God wherever His body was placed. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek towards His Father’s dispensations for Him.
June 15th – The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I do my duty, not for duty’s sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.
June 16th – Salvation is easy because it cost God so much, but the manifestation of it in my life is difficult. God saves a man and endues him with the Holy Spirit, and then says in effect – “Now work it out, be loyal to Me, whilst the nature of things round you would make you disloyal.”
June 17th ¬ If I see the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me…Stop having a measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in every man’s case about which we know nothing.
Good stuff, isn’t it? There are even more rich nuggets to be found. If you haven’t already read this week’s entries, I encourage you to do it. You can find the devotionals at www.myutmost.org.
Okay, I’m dying to share one more snippet with you! It is from June 12th and it’s just so good…
To say “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable to human pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. It literally means that you defy God to make you a saint, “I am much too weak and hopeless, I am outside the reach of the Atonement.” Humility before men may be unconscious blasphemy before God.
What spoke most to you from this week’s devotions? I’d love to hear from you…