Look Again and Think

The following is today's devotion from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. If you do not own this book, please go out and buy it (Classic Edition, not the Updated version). Whenever I read his writings I feel I am hearing directly from God. Chambers had a school for future missionaries in England and became a chaplain for British troops in Egypt during World War One, where he died around the age of 46. This man was wholly God's - PERIOD.

How often do I defame the Son of God by thinking "Will He REALLY help in this situation?" We know He CAN, but deep down we don't believe He WILL. Yet He is even so brazen as to say that we are not to focus on the needs or problems of the day. We are to concentrate on Him alone. Yes, we work and do the daily things, but relationship with Jesus is the primary impetus of our being, each and every minute of each and every day. He is the I AM-present with us and in us. "The cares of this world...choke the word" (see Mark 4:19). Jesus is the Word of God. Interesting-if we allow the burdens of life to weigh us down, we are choking the Lord Jesus out of us! Maybe the graphic image of us taking Jesus by the throat and choking Him would bring us up short every time we start to stew about our difficulties. Here's something MORE frightening to think about: Rev. 21:8: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable,...shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Will we stay true to Jesus no matter what? Will our hearts and minds be so His that nothing satan throws our way will shake or disturb us? These are questions we must answer NOW-in the nitty gritty of life NOW, or we won't stand in the dark days ahead. Just like the five foolish virgins, our lamps will be empty and we will be turned away.

 

"Take no thought for your life."

MATTHEW 6:25

A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood.

"Take no thought for your life." "Be careful about one thing only," says our Lord, "your relationship to Me." Common sense shouts loud and says, "That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink." Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first.

"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.