MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST 16 JULY 2024 BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
Read My Utmost for His Highest 16 July 2024 (Oswald Chambers Devotional) Tuesday Inspirational Message.
TOPIC: The Notion of Divine Control
Ask and it will be given to you. . . . How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! —Matthew 7:7, 11
Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those who have his Spirit. Through the simple argument of these verses, he urges us to keep our minds filled with the idea of God’s control behind everything, which means that the disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek. Jesus wants us to learn this way of reasoning: “God is my Father. He loves me. I will never think of anything he will forget. Why should I worry?”
Fix your mind on the idea that God is there. Once your thoughts are settled on this line, it becomes as easy as breathing to recall that your heavenly Father is behind everything that happens. Even when perplexities and difficulties press in on you, remembering the “much more” of your Father comes naturally and without effort. Before when troubles arose, you sought help from other people. Now, the notion of divine control is so powerfully formed in your mind that you go directly to God.
There will always be moments when God’s guidance is not at all obvious, moments when he does not lift the darkness. But trust him. Jesus said that God will appear at times like an unkind friend, but he is not (Luke 11:5–8). He will appear at times like an unnatural father, but he is not (vv. 9–13). He will appear at times like an unjust judge, but he is not (18:1–8). Keep the idea strong and growing in your mind that nothing happens unless God wills it. Rest in perfect confidence in him and learn to pray from this place of certainty. Prayer is not only asking; it is cultivating the frame of mind in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask and it will be given to you.”
FURTHER READING: Psalms 16-17; Acts 20:1-16
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.
So Send I You, 1325 L
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