Oswald Chambers Peace: Life in the Spirit

Epochs and civilizations appear after a time to be flung on the scrap-heap by God in a strangely careless manner. The remarkable thing in the record of the Ages is that each Age ends in apparent disaster. The saint knows that God reigns, and that the clouds are but the dust of his Father’s feet and he has no need to fear. He feels assured that these catastrophic occurrences are but incidental, and that a higher peace and a purer character are to be the permanent result. History is fulfilling prophecy all the time.

The path of peace for us is to hand ourselves over to God and ask Him to search us, not what we think we are, or what other people think we are, or what we persuade ourselves we are or would like to be, but, “Search me out, O God, explore me as I really am in Thy sight.”

Reflection Questions: What does the downfall of dictators indicate about the effectiveness of peace that is imposed on people? What does history teach me about human attempts to make peace?

Oswald Chambers Peace: Life in the Spirit.

Day 21 of 30 day devotional.

After being born again a man experiences peace, but it is a peace maintained at the point of war. The wrong disposition is no longer in the ascendant, but it is there, and the man knows it is. He is conscious of an alternating experience, sometimes he is in ecstasy, sometimes in the dumps; there is no stability, no real spiritual triumph. To take this as the experience of full salvation is to prove God not justified in the Atonement.

To be a believer in Jesus Christ means realizing that what Jesus said to Thomas is true: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is not the road we leave behind as we travel, but the Way itself. By believing, we enter into that rest of peace, holiness, and eternal life because we are abiding in Him.

Reflection Questions: What kind of peace do we gain by force? What does it take to maintain that kind of peace? Why is agreement with God necessary for genuine peace?

Oswald Chambers Peace: Life in the Spirit

Day 20 of 30 day devotional.

Reflected peace is the greatest evidence that I am right with God, for I am at liberty to turn my mind to Him. If I am not right with God I can never turn my mind anywhere but on myself. Are you painfully disturbed just now, distracted by the waves and billows of God’s providential permission? Having turned over, as it were, the boulders of your belief, do you still find no well of peace or joy or comfort—all is barren? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Above and in the facts of war and pain and difficulties He reigns, peaceful.

Before the Spirit of God can bring peace of mind He has to clear out the rubbish, and before He can do that He has to give us an idea of what rubbish there is.

Reflection Questions: What do selfish thoughts tell me about my concept of peace? What anxious thoughts do I need to clear from my mind before I can have peace with God and others?

Oswald Chambers Peace: Life in the Spirit.

Day 19 of 30 day devotional.

There are wonderful things about light, but there are terrible things also. When once the light of God’s Spirit breaks into a heart and life that has been perfectly happy and peaceful without God, it is hell for that one. Light brings confusion and disaster. When light comes all the things of the night tremble. The night of heathenism is being split up, not by the incoming of civilization, but by the witness of men and women who are true to God.

Our Lord uses the eye as the symbol of conscience in a man who has been put right by the Holy Spirit. If we walk in the light as God is in the light, that will keep our eyes focused, and slowly and surely all our actions begin to be put into the right relationship, and everything becomes full of harmony and simplicity and peace.

Reflection Questions: What has the light of the Lord revealed to me that is confusing, upsetting, or unclear? How does focusing on the Lord bring all that is blurry into a unified vision of peace and harmony?

Oswald Chambers Peace: Life in the Spirit.

Day 19 of 30 day devotional.

There are wonderful things about light, but there are terrible things also. When once the light of God’s Spirit breaks into a heart and life that has been perfectly happy and peaceful without God, it is hell for that one. Light brings confusion and disaster. When light comes all the things of the night tremble. The night of heathenism is being split up, not by the incoming of civilization, but by the witness of men and women who are true to God.

Our Lord uses the eye as the symbol of conscience in a man who has been put right by the Holy Spirit. If we walk in the light as God is in the light, that will keep our eyes focused, and slowly and surely all our actions begin to be put into the right relationship, and everything becomes full of harmony and simplicity and peace.

Reflection Questions: What has the light of the Lord revealed to me that is confusing, upsetting, or unclear? How does focusing on the Lord bring all that is blurry into a unified vision of peace and harmony?