I regularly read Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest as a part of my quiet time. I re-read these words the other day and was struck again by their power. I read this the same day that I read the entry on Neil’s blog about how we communicate with others about issues that are important to us. I can definitely see a connection:
“Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring.
As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God—it is only believing our belief about Him.
If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “…believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in–but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.”
Relationship, relationship, relationship. It all goes back to our relationship with God and our relationship with our fellow human beings. When we place doctrine or convictions before relationship, our relationships suffer. Legalism prevails. We miss out on the blessing of being used by the Holy Spirit to glorify God, share the Good News, give voice to God’s Truth….not OUR truth, but God’s Truth. We are not called to be the Holy Spirit to other people…that job is already filled. We are called to rest in the gracious uncertainty of what wondrous thing God will do next and be willing and ready to be used by Him as His hands, His feet and maybe even His voice to a hurting world. It is my opinion that this requires much more listening than most of us are willing to do…listening to God and listening to one another. And REALLY listening to each other requires that we give up our need to be right…and our need to know all the answers. Being right all the time and knowing all the answers is God’s job, not ours. Whew! What a relief!!
Sort of a rambling collection of thoughts today based on those words from Oswald Chambers…would love to hear what you think!
