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'βthe 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 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
Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to perform, and in what order and rhythm; or else someone's gaze, answer, gesture is enough; it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment, all spaces change, all heights, distances; the city is transfigured, becomes crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly.
Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always.
As we discern a fine line between crank and genius, so also (and unfortunately) we must acknowledge an equally graded trajectory from crank to demagogue. When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
Resolved ... that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism - free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.
Is childhood ever long enough, or a happy time, or even a beautiful summer day? All of these carry the seeds of the same fierce mystery that we call death.