My Utmost for His Highest - April 16th - Can You Come Down?

While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light. - John 12:36

    We all have moments when we feel better than our best, and we say--"I feel fit for anything; If only I could be like this always!" We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for this workaday world when there is no high hour. We must bring our commonplace life up to the standard revealed in the high hour.

 
    Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate. Don't put your mental feet on the mantelpiece and say--"What a marvelous state of mind to be in!" Act immediately, do something, if only because you would rather not do it. If in a prayer meeting God has shown you something to do, don't say--"I'll do it"; do it! Take yourself by the scruff of the neck and shake off your incarnate laziness. Laziness is always seen in cravings for the high hour; we talk about working up to a time on the mount. We have to learn to live in the grey day according to what we saw on the mount.

    Don't cave in because you have been baffled once, get at it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by your own act. never revise your decisions, but see that you make your decisions in the light of the high hour.

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

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

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My Utmost for His Highest - March 27th - Vision By Personal Character

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” - Revelation 4:1

An elevated mood can only come out of an elevated habit of personal character. If in the externals of your life you live up to the highest you know, God will continually say--"Friend, go up higher (Luke 14:10)." The golden rule in temptation is--Go higher. When you get higher up,  you face other temptations and characteristics. Satan uses the strategy of elevation in temptation, and God does the same, but the effect is different. When the devil puts you into an elevated place, he makes you screw your idea of holiness beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear, it is a spiritual acrobatic performance, you are just poised and dare not move; but when God elevates you by His grace into the heavenly places, instead of finding a pinnacle to cling to, you find a great table-land where it is easy to move. 

Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year and see how God has called you up higher. We have all been brought to see from a higher standpoint. Never let God give you one point of truth which you do not instantly live up to. Always work it out, keep in the light of it. 

Growth in grace (2 Peter 3:18) is measured not by the fact that you have not gone back, but that you have an insight into where you are spiritually; you have heard God say 'Come up higher," not to you personally, but to the insight of your character. 

"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do (Genesis 18:17)?" God has to hide from us what He does until by personal character we get to the place where He can reveal it. 

Oswald Chambers - From My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition

- Underlines and highlights are courtesy of Mom from her Print Edition

Jesus Calling: February 1

Follow Me one step at a time. That is all I require of you. In fact, that is the only way to move through this space/time world. You see huge mountains looming, and you start wondering how you're going to scale those heights. Meanwhile, because you're not looking where you're going, you stumble on the easy path where I am leading you now. As I help you get back on your feet, you tell Me how worried you are about the cliffs up ahead. But you don't know what will happen today, much less tomorrow. Our path may take an abrupt turn, leading you away from those mountains. There may be an easier way up the mountains than is visible from this distance. If I do lead you up the cliffs, I will equip you thoroughly for that strenuous climb. I will even give My angels charge over you, to preserve you in all your ways.
     Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying My Presence. Walk by faith, not by sight, trusting Me to open up the way before you.

Psalm 18:29
English Standard Version
For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.

Psalm 91:11-12
Amplified Version
For he will give His angels (especial) charge over you 
to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service]. 
They shall bear you up on their hands,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.

2 Corinthians 5:7
New King James Version
for we walk by faith, not by sight.

My Prayer
Lord, don't let me be far from you, but help me to concentrate and focus on You each step. Keep me under Your control. Lord, I want to be ready for what is before me and that means that instead of focusing on what is ahead, I focus on You. I keep my focus on the High Road and let you define my walk. Don't let me get bogged down in what I see, but rather focus on Faith and living and walking by faith, not by sight. Lord, I admit that is really hard. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I was blind, literally, because then I would be forced to be led. Yet, my guess is, I would still think I am in control. Yet this is the picture I want in my life, to be blind and led by You.

Don't let me get ahead of myself. I do need to think about the big picture in decisions and even child rearing, but help me to not be stressed by future events that are completely uncertain. I can trust You for those outcomes. I can trust You; no, really, I can do it. Don't let me get sidetracked from today that I miss opportunities you have given me to talk to people about You and remind them that You are all we need.

Note: The devotion and scriptures are from author Sarah Young. If you haven't already, please purchase the book and support the author. 

Also, bookmark https://bibletags.blogspot.com/2019/06/jesus-calling-366-days.html to have an easy link to the entire year of these entries.