My Utmost for His Highest - May 2nd - The Passion of Patience

For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. - Habakkuk 2:3

    Patience is not indifference; patience conveys the idea of an immensely strong rock withstanding all onslaughts. The vision of God is the source of patience, because it imparts a moral inspiration. Moses endured, not because he had an ideal of right and duty, but because he had a vision of God. He "endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:27)" A man with the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue; he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision of God because of the inspiration that comes with it; things come with largeness and tonic to the life because everything is energized by God. If God gives you a time spiritually, as He gave His son actually, of temptation in the wilderness, with no word from Himself at all, endure, and the power to endure is there because you see God.

    "Though it tarry, wait for it." The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have grasped. It is a a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. "What shall I render unto the Lord?" said the Psalmist. "I will take the cup of salvation. (Psalm 116:12-13)" We are apt to look for satisfaction in ourselves--"Now I have got the thing; now I am entirely sanctified; now I can endure." Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. (Philippians 3:12)" If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing; if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of relaxation spiritually.

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

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

My thoughts

Hmm. The vision of God is the source of patience. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually.