MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST 19 AUGUST 2024 BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
Read My Utmost for His Highest 19 August 2024 (Oswald Chambers Devotional) Monday Inspirational Message.
TOPIC: Self-Consciousness
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. — Matthew 11:28
God intends for us to live a full-orbed life in Jesus Christ, a life defined by an unworrying oneness with him. But there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, when we find ourselves tumbling back into a habit of introspection we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, because it produces a continual wrestling.
Self-consciousness isn’t sin. It may be caused by a nervous temperament or by suddenly finding ourselves in new circumstances. But it’s never God’s will that we should be less than absolutely complete in him. Anything that disturbs our rest in him must be cured at once.
“Come to me.” You can’t cure self-consciousness by ignoring it; the only cure is to come to Jesus Christ. When we come to him and ask him to produce Christ-consciousness, he will do it, over and over again, until we learn to abide in him.
If your life in Christ is no longer whole, don’t refuse to face the problem. Beware of anything that splits up your oneness with him, whether it be the influence of friends or of circumstances. Beware of anything that makes you see yourself as separate from your Lord. Nothing is as important as keeping whole spiritually. The great solution is the simple one: “Come to me.” The depth of our reality—intellectually, morally, and spiritually—is tested by these words. In every matter in which we are not real, we will argue with God rather than come.
FURTHER READING: Psalms 103-104; 1 Corinthians 2
Wisdom from Oswald
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
Oswald Chambers was an early-twentieth-century Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher who was aligned with the Holiness Movement. He is best known for the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest