Exceptional in the ordinary
From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers:
"Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our temperament, not along the line of God...Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God...We do not need the grace of God to stand crises; human nature and pride are sufficient. We can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is imbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes."
"Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our temperament, not along the line of God...Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God...We do not need the grace of God to stand crises; human nature and pride are sufficient. We can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is imbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes."
posted by Violet | 8:46 PM
3 Comments:
Speaking as one child that does NOT face crises magnificently.... how grateful I am for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His enabling for all tasks - ordinary and un!
Dawn, I echo your gratitude for the Holy Spirit's enablement in all things.
I am needy in all areas as well. In a crisis, although I more readily recognize my need for the Lord's empowerment and cry out for help, there are usually others around that are observing my response and I will (usually) remain calm on the outside (hence the pride issue). But in the day to day ordinariness of life,I'm most often alone or with immediate family (i.e. no one to impress). I forget His continual presence with me and the fact that I am playing out my life for an audience of One.
So, yes, I would say with you "how grateful I am for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His enabling for all tasks - ordinary and un!"
Wow. This is something that really hits home. I was thinking the other day about how I believe that I could die for Christ. It's the living for Him day to day in the hum-drum of life that gets me.
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