Have You Ever Been Expressionless With Sorrow?

August 18 Daily Devotional

Have You Ever Been Expressionless With Sorrow? And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.  Luke 18:23 The rich young ruler went away expressionless with sorrow; he had not a word to say. He had no doubt as to what Jesus said, no debate as to what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow that had not any words. Have you ever been there? Has God’s word come to you about something you are very rich in — temperament, personal affinity, relationships of heart and mind? Then you have often been expressionless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, He will not plead, but every time He meets you on that point He will simply repeat — “If you mean what you say, those are the conditions.” “Sell all that thou hast” — undress yourself morally before God of everything that might be a possession until you are a mere conscious human being, and then give God that. That is where the battle is fought — in the domain of the will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His hard sayings that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is hard, it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His disposition. Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus Christ’s. I can be so rich in poverty, so rich in the consciousness that I am nobody, that I shall never be a disciple of Jesus; and I can be so rich in the consciousness that I am somebody — that I shall never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute of the sense that I am destitute? This is where discouragement comes in. Discouragement is disenchanted self-love, and self-love may be love of my devotion to Jesus. From My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition Bible in One Year: Psalms 100-102; 1 Corinthians 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. from Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

%%DC::USUTMOST_DYNAMICRULE::USUTMOST_DYNAMICCONTENT%%

My Utmost for His Highest © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All rights reserved. United States publication rights are held by Discovery House, which is affiliated with Our Daily Bread Ministries. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Manage Your Subscription. About Oswald Chambers Contact Us