My Utmost for His Highest - May 16th - The Habit of Wealth

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. - 2 Peter 1:4

    We are made partakers of the Divine nature through the promises; then we have to "manipulate" the Divine nature in our heaven nature by habits, and the first habit to form is the habit of realizing the provision God has made. "Oh, I can't afford it," we say--one of the worst lies is tucked up in that phrase. It is ungovernably bad taste to talk about money in the natural domain, and so it is spiritually, and yet we talk as if our Heavenly Father had cut us off with a shilling! We think it a sign of real modesty to say at the end of a day--"Oh, well, I have just got through, but it has been a severe tussle." And all the Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will obey Him. What does it matter if external circumstances are hard? Why should they not be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we banish God's riches from our own lives and hinder others from entering His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them.

    When God is beginning to be satisfied with us He will impoverish everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him (Psalm 87:7). If the majesty and grace and power of God are not being manifested in us (not to our consciousness), God holds us responsible. "God is able to make all grace abound, (2 Corinthians 9:8)" then learn to lavish the grace of God on others. Be stamped with God's nature, and His blessing will come through you all the time.

- From Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest" - Classic Edition

Highlights and Underlines are courtesy of Mom from her print edition.

Mom's Notes

Deanna's birthday

My thoughts

The danger in life is to think that we are going at it alone, like when we say at the end of a day, "I barely made it through the day." Again we act like trials shouldn't happen and yet God promises them. Instead we should approach each day seeking to better understand what God wants to teach us through the circumstances of our life. Guard against self-pity or "woe is me." This is self-absorbed thinking rather than being completely satisfied with Him, no matter the circumstance. Remember grace should be a constant in our life. We experience it and we pass it onto others.