MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST 26 MAY 2024 BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
Read My Utmost for His Highest 26 May 2024 (Oswald Chambers Devotional) Sunday Inspirational Message.
TOPIC: Think as Jesus Taught
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.— 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the idea of prayer we have in our minds. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood in our hearts, we think rightly. The breathing continues ceaselessly; the blood flows ceaselessly. We’re not always conscious of these activities, but they are always going on. This is how it ought to be with prayer.
We might not be conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect, prayerful harmony with God, but if we are obeying him, he always is. Prayer isn’t an exercise; it’s life. To “pray continually” means to keep the childlike habit of spontaneous prayer in our hearts at all times.
Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Do we, through the Holy Spirit, share Jesus’s certainty? Or do we always think of the times when it seemed God didn’t answer? Jesus taught that “everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:8). “But, but, but . . .” we say. We forget that God answers prayer in the best way—not sometimes but every time. His answer might not come immediately, nor in the exact way we want, but it does come.
Do we truly expect God to answer prayer? The danger with many of us is that we want to water down what Jesus said. We want to make his words mean something that agrees with common sense. If what Jesus said is only common sense, it wasn’t worthwhile for him to say it. The things Jesus said about prayer are supernatural revelations.
Further Reading: 1 Chronicles 28-29; John 9:24-41
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come.
Shade of His Hand, 1226 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