Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.
We have all had times...when we have seen things from God's standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. ...[I]t is in the valley where we live for the glory of God.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that while we may desire to remain in moments of divine understanding, true life and glory come from navigating the challenges we face.
Oswald Chambers suggests that there are moments when we gain profound insights or experiences that reflect a higher perspective, akin to seeing things from God's viewpoint. However, he asserts that these moments are fleeting, as life is predominantly spent in the 'valleys'—the everyday struggles and challenges. It is in these trials that we can truly glorify God and find purpose, as they require faith and resilience.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a religious conference might use this quote to emphasize the importance of perseverance through tough times.
More from Oswald Chambers
All quotes →Never 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.
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But to my mind, though I am native here, And to the manner born, it is a custom, More honored in the breach than the observance.
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The conception of gods originated in fear and curiosity. Primitive man, unable to understand the phenomena of nature, and harassed by them, saw in every terrifying manifestation some sinister force expressly directed against him; and as ignorance and fear are the parents of all superstition, the troubled fancy of primitive man wove the God idea.
Without theory, there are no questions.
For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
We offer peace and neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Hebrew nation for the common good of all.