I’m trying to get back in the habit of reading my Bible daily again and have decided to also read two daily devotional books, or “dailies,” simultaneously. One of the dailies is the well know book My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. The other daily is A Gentle Spirit: Devotional Selections for Today’s Christian Woman which is a compilation of several inspiring women such as Joni Eareckson Tada, Sheila Walsh, Twila Paris, Amy Carmichael, Elisabeth Elliot, Ruth Bell Graham, Corrie ten Boom, etc. So far everything is going well.
Today’s thought comes from My Utmost for His Highest. The verse was, “And [he] pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east; and there he builded (sic) an alter.” – Genesis 12:8
Oswald went on to discuss worship and how we are called to give back fully the things he has blessed us with as a love offering. When we give back the blessing it’s a deliberate act of worship that can be used to bless others. If we insist on hoarding the blessings he’s given to us, the blessings will become dry and will be like the manna that rotted when the Israelites tried to “save some for later” instead of depending on God to replenish their supply.
Oswald then continued to discuss the verse reminding that Bethel was a symbol of communion with God and Hai is a symbol for the world. The only way we can honestly do any good in this world is to have communication with God. It’s true that we “cannot live by bread alone” and must consume the “word” of God thought our communion with him, but we must also remember that we cannot be effective tools for his glory and purpose if we completely divorce ourselves from the world by trying to set up our tents solely on the ground of Bethel. We can’t sit there and say, “Ok this is God’s spot in my day and that’s when I’ll have my quiet time.” Instead we should work towards having a continuous quiet time/communion despite the constant batter of noise that we receive from the world. We need to quite jumping around in our lives like “spiritual frogs” from worship to waiting to work and let God create in us an ever bubbling fountain of life to fuel our worship and work.
neumatikos 