May 2, 2009

In God We Must...

Have faith,not emotion. It may sound a little strange that faith is what it takes to be in proper relationship to a relational, personal God. You would think the emotional would drive the relationship. Some excerpts from Mr. Chambers, an old friend of The Narrow Road:

A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world...But what God wants us to do is to "walk by faith." How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, "I cannot do anything else until God appears to me"? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, "Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!" Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them...

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: May 1 Devotional

In our faith God will reveal ourselves to us. I am not saying we shouldn't have joy and deeply intense and personal feelings about our relationship with God. On the contrary, the deeper, the more personal, the better.

But let your feelings be driven by your faith,, and not your faith driven by your feelings.




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