Oswald Chambers: Peace - Life in the SpiritSample

How much of faith, hope, and love is worked in us when we try to convince somebody else? It is not our business to convince other people, that is the insistence of a merely intellectual, unspiritual life. The Spirit of God will do the convicting when we are in the relationship where we simply convey God’s word. We exploit the word of God in order to fit it into some view of our own that we have generated; but when it comes to the great calm peace and rest of the Lord Jesus, we can easily test where we are.

To “rest in the Lord” is the perfection of inward activity. In the ordinary reasoning of man it means sitting with folded arms and letting God do everything; in reality it is being so absolutely stayed on God that we are free to do the active work of men without fuss. The times God works most wonderfully are the times we never think about it.

Reflection Questions: How much of my unrest comes from trying to create peace on my terms rather than God’s? Which part of the peace-making process belongs to God and which to me?

Quotation taken from If Thou Wilt Be Perfect, © Discovery House Publishers