Oswald Chambers
God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.Collection: Prayer
When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.Collection: Heartbreak
The greatest test of Christianity is the wear and tear of daily life; it is like the shining of silver: the more it is rubbed the brighter it grows.Collection: Shining
We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.Collection: Faith
Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven; the Holy Ghost carries on intercession in us on earth; and we the saints have to carry on intercession for all men.Collection: Jesus
We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing- that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment. If we have God’s assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.Collection: Ordinary Days
The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.Collection: Weakness
God never forces a person's will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. True surrender is a matter of being 'united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death' (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him. And after you surrender--then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.Collection: Jesus
The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it.Collection: Voice
A life of intimacy with God is characterized by joy.Collection: Joy
Spiritual maturity is not reached by the passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God. Some people mature into an understanding of God’s will more quickly than others because they obey more readily; they more readily sacrifice the life of nature to the will of God.Collection: Spiritual
Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source.Collection: Eye
Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp.Collection: Men
The Bible does not thrill; the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically.Collection: Real
Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus. That is the true meaning of being broken bread and poured-out wine in real life.Collection: Jesus
We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them.Collection: Inspirational
Keep your soul fit to manifest the life of the Son of God. Never live on memories; let the word of God be always living and active in you.Collection: Memories
We can never be like lillies in the garden unless we have spent time as bulbs in the dark, totally ignored.Collection: Dark
Prayer is an effort of will.Collection: Prayer
The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.Collection: Profound
When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him.Collection: Believe
Our true character comes out in the way we pray.Collection: Prayer
If we are abandoned to Jesus we have no ends of our own to serve.Collection: Jesus
Prayer is not logical, it is a mysterious moral working of the Holy Spirit.Collection: Prayer
A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness.Collection: Spiritual
Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you - or else tell Him that at all costs you want to be identified with His death.Collection: Jesus
Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.Collection: Spiritual
It is easy to turn our religious life into a cathedral for beautiful memories, but there are feet to be washed . . .Collection: Beautiful
God's end is to enable me to see that he can walk on the chaos of my life just now.Collection: Chaos
Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?Collection: Jesus
Prayer is not a preparation for work, it IS work. Prayer is not a preparation for the battle, it IS the battle. Prayer is two-fold: definite asking and definite waiting to receive.Collection: Prayer
Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.Collection: Jesus
Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God.Collection: Consistency
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.Collection: Devotion
Love for the Lord is not an ethereal, intellectual, dreamlike thing; it is the intensest, most vital, most passionate love of which the human heart is capable.Collection: Heart
If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time or great personal growth ahead.Collection: Challenges
Pray because you have a Father, not because it quietens you, and give Him time to answer.Collection: Prayer
Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him.Collection: Obedience
There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes.Collection: Joy
We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.Collection: Letting Go
There are not three stages in spiritual life-worship, waiting, and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs. We jump from worship to waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of our Lord.Collection: Spiritual
Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.Collection: Realizing
he must deny his right to himself, and he must realize who Jesus Christ is before he will bring himself to do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independenceCollection: Jesus
If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not "a little bit of love," but major surgery. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God.Collection: Jesus
Sanctification costs to the extent of "an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth and an immense broadening of all our interests in God.Collection: Temptation
Prayer is the evidence that I am spiritually concentrated on God.Collection: Prayer
The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights.Collection: Christian
Never forget that our capacity and capability in spiritual matters is measured by, and based on, the promises of God.Collection: Spiritual
We must build our faith not on fading lights but on the Light that never fails.Collection: Light