How do you get rich quick? Enrich your soul by reading the spiritual insights of those who have gone deep with the things of God. Their words may challenge you and make you squirm a bit, but they also have the potential of changing you and giving you a greater hunger for God.
In 2009 I began reading the classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, a collection of the writings of Oswald Chambers.
“Wrestling Before God” from 12/16 challenged and changed my thinking in the earliest of days grieving for my son. The gist of the passage is that we are not to wrestle with God, we wrestle with things before God. The reading concludes with, “Beware of squatting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of His strength.”
Other than the Bible, no other manuscript has enriched my life more than the teaching of Mr. Chambers. However it was Mrs. Gertrude Hobbs Chambers (endearingly nicknamed Biddy by her husband), who compiled the daily entries of My Utmost for His Highest.
Biddy Chambers learned shorthand from a correspondence course. It is recorded that she could take dictation at 250 words per minute – faster than some people can speak! Her goal was to be the secretary of the Prime Minister of England. I believe she exceeded that goal in transcribing her husband’s work. When Oswald Chambers spoke, it was Biddy Chambers who took notes by shorthand. Later she used her notes and typed the manuscripts for her husband’s books.
Kathleen, the daughter of Oswald and Biddy, describes her mother’s faith in God as “unperplexed and undisturbed.” She goes onto explain that never was her mother desperate – puzzled perhaps – but never desperate when it came to God’s plan.
Kathleen’s favorite daily selections are:
- July 13 “The Price of Vision” – “Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.” Kathleen says she is sure her mother had purpose in choosing this passage which corresponded to her mother’s birth date.
- December 31 “Yesterday” – “Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.” Kathleen added that she liked this passage because it falls on the last day of the year. I wonder if the message of “yesterday” might go deeper as she never really knew her father. He fell ill and died when Kathleen was about four years old.
It doesn’t take long to become a devotee of My Utmost for His Highest. You, too, will be the richer for reading and meditating on the spiritual insight found on its pages. In fact, you’ll find yourself getting rich quick!
I enjoy sitting in my backyard while reading from my copy which includes a journaling section on each page.
Perhaps my favorite passage of all is from July 28 “After Obedience – What?” It is my pleasure…my simple pleasure, to share with you the section that moved me most.
“If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working toward a particular finish; His end is the process – that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It it the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.”
Ponder and share with me, what book or devotional (other than the Bible) most enriches your soul? If you read My Utmost for His Highest, do you have a favorite entry?
