Take the Initiative

 

When I read this entry out of Oswald Chamber’s book, “My Utmost for His Highest” earlier this week I was struck by several things.

First, in the first paragraph – “…God will not do what we can do. Oh, but I want Him to – Make me thin, make me a better wife, mother…
Second, the line in bold in the second paragraph: “Beware of the tendency of asking the way when you know it perfectly well.”  Ouch! That one hurt. How often I go to the Lord with the same old questions – questions that I already know the answers to, and I just haven’t acted upon them.

Third, the urging of the second and third paragraphs to take the initiative – I’m an organizer – I’m used to taking the initiative – in some things. Things I like to do, for instance, organizing my home, planning meals, delegating chores. They get done just fine. Where I fall into trouble is when it starts to get personal – like taking the initiative to restore a relationship, being the first to apologize, making better use of my time, or exercising the way the Lord has told me to dozens of times… Those are the places I fail.

Help me Lord to do those things you have already asked me to do.

Take the Initiative by Oswald Chambers

“Add to your faith virtue…” (“Furnish your faith with resolution.” (Moffatt.) 2 Peter 1:5

“Add” means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that, but God will not give us good habits. He will not give us character; He will not make us walk aright. We have to do all that ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in. “Add” means to get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages, it is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning, to instruct yourself in the way you have to go.

Beware of the tendency of asking the way when you know it perfectly well.

Take the initiative, stop hesitating, and take the first step. Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative, take it yourself, take the step with your will now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you – “I will write that letter”; “I will pay that debt.” Make the thing inevitable.

We have to get into the habit of hearkening to God about everything, to form the habit of finding out what God says. If when a crisis comes we instinctively turn to God, we know that the habit has been formed. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we are not.

Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest

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