Today I began David Platt's new book, "Follow me: A call to die. A call to live." I've already been encouraged after the intro and first chapter and highly recommend it. During the first chapter Platt quotes Oswald Chamber's from his devotional "My Utmost for His Highest." It challenged me and provoked me that I just had to share it here. Read the following, and I pray it encourages you to live the life God is calling you to live:
"Suppose God tells you to do
something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against
it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing
something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break
the habit through sheer determination.
And the same is true spiritually, Again and again you will come right up
to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of
testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender….
Jesus Christ demands the same
unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him….If
a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he
must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk
everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith
into what He says. Once you obey,
you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common
sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus
Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith,
your finding will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very
words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new
opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis—only one
out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of
God."
Powerful
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