This is one of my favorite Oswald Chambers devotions so I decided to share it with all of you today. Since we all pass through times of suffering I pray you will find comfort in his words if this is that season for you.
The Sacrament of the Saint – Oswald Chambers
“Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing.” I Peter 4:19
To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God’s will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God’s will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. No saint dare interfere with the discipline of suffering in another saint.
The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. The people who do us good are never those who sympathize with us, they always hinder, because sympathy enervates. No one understands a saint but the saint who is nearest to the Savior. If we accept the sympathy of a saint, the reflex feeling is – Well, God is dealing hardly with me. That is why Jesus said self-pity was of the devil (see Matt. 16:23). Be merciful to God’s reputation. It is easy to blacken God’s character because God never answers back, He never vindicates Himself. Beware of the thought that Jesus needed sympathy in His earthy life; He refused sympathy from man because He knew far too wisely that no one on earth understood what He was after. He took sympathy from His Father only, and from the angels in heaven. (CF. Luke 15:10)
Notice God’s unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world. God plants His saints in the most useless places. We say – God intends me to be here because I am so useful. Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use. God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judges at all of where that is.
Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis
Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
http://www.Phyllis-Sather.com
© 2007 Phyllis Sather
4 Comments
Phyllis
Hi everyone – I just came online and read this post and realized I needed it today to! How’s that for a God thing? I’m glad it has been a blessing. Phyllis
Elaine
Dear Phyllis,
Hey Phyllis. I hope you are doing well and love that you put this on your blog.
This selection reminds me that God’s perspective is often SOOOOO diferent than ours. He sees from eternity past into our present. We are in the present and long to eternity and the future it holds. It’s good to be reminded we can always be content, because God is always with us and always capable of manifesting His amazing love to us and to this world, indeed ! Could there be a higher calling?
I love O. Chambers and feel like he is someone I have known personally,
because His words are so on target to my life situations.
God bless,
Elaine
sista cala
I needed this today. Even though I know my light afflictions are not worthy to be compared to His suffering, I find comfort in knowing that He endured it all for me.
Deanne
Thank you for sharing ths Phyllis-Oswald Chambers is one of my favorites, altough I have never read this before–it is excellent…