Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.
God makes us as broken bread and poured-out wine to please Him. Beware of competing calls once the call of God grips you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the idea of self-sacrifice and devotion to a higher purpose, cautioning against distractions that can divert one from their divine calling.
Oswald Chambers' quote reflects the notion that individuals are crafted through their experiences and sacrifices, much like bread and wine are prepared and shared. In this metaphor, being 'broken' symbolizes the process of growth through challenges, while 'poured-out' signifies giving oneself fully to a purpose greater than oneself. The second part warns about the need for focus and commitment to spiritual calling, as various distractions can lead one away from fulfilling their divine purpose.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about faith, you can use this quote to inspire congregants to prioritize their spiritual journey.
More from Oswald Chambers
All quotes βNever make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer your prayer.
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God.
When we preach the love of God there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals not first the love of God but the intense, blazing holiness of God, with His love at the center of that holiness.
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration.
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.
Similar quotes
No one is born a terrorist, but the route to become one is surprisingly easy. We need to listen to those who have been there, and those who have made their way back, if we want to stop others from taking their first steps down this same path into darkness.
The sacred is in the ordinary...it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's own backyard...travel may be a flight from confronting the scared--this lesson can be easily lost. To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous.
One of the problems of modern society, or the post-Internet age, is that there are so many things bombarding us that we could care about. I think it's more important than ever to really get clear and focus on what's worth caring about and what's just noise or distraction.
Imagine that each time you inhale, that the universe is breathing into you, and as you exhale it is breathing out of you.
History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.
It's never a question of skin pigmentation. It's never a question of just culture or sexual orientation or civilization. It's what kind of human being you're going to choose to be from your mama's womb to the tomb and what kind of legacy will you leave.