"Utmost" Thinking

Rather than simply post Oswald Chambers' devotional today, I'm just going to share some highlights.

Today's entry in "My Utmost for His Highest" is titled: "The Habit of Having No Habits." Chambers message is to encourage believers not to get stuck in any habit even if it's good.

"The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the Lord until they become such a spontaneous expression of our lives that we are no longer aware of them." True Christianity always causes us to look within ourselves so that we may examine if we are "in the faith." Too often we get into a rut with our spiritual lives and hang on to our habits rather than continually pursuing God with all of our hearts. If our Bible Reading is only about continuing in a "Quiet Time" rather than meeting with God then the habit has trumped the intimacy. If the reason we give, pray, or even share our faith is out of habit then we can lose the worship aspect of all that we do. Don't get me wrong...we have to establish some things in our lives in order to move forward in the Christian life but we don't want to be consciously aware of what we are doing.

I'll give you an example: Most of us know someone who smokes, dips, chews, etc. These people have developed a bad habit. At first many of them were conscious of what they were doing. After a while, it became a normal part of their every day life. If this is true when it comes to bad habits then why not good ones? Why are we still so consciously aware of our "quiet times" or times of prayer. Why do we fail to allow them to become a natural part of our everyday lives?

Chambers goes on to say this: "Your god may be your little Christian habit - the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes." This statement blew me away. Too often we blame the devil for messing up our quiet times. But could it be that God would actually interrupt our schedule to move us into a greater experience with Him? We need to make sure that our times with God are more than just times with our habit!

I have always been a firm believer in establishing time alone with God. I think it's vital for us to have these times. However, I also believe that we should be willing to live in a spontaneous expression of our devotion to God. God may wake me up earlier than usual or He may ask me to spend more time in prayer. There may be a day when I have to take my "devotions" outside or move them to a different place. I'm not saying to get out of the habit - what I am saying is maintain the intimacy with God.

"If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful..." (2 Peter 1:8)