Quality Time with Oswald: The Idol of Inspiration

If you are not familiar with the devotional journal My Utmost for His Highest you should be! I can honestly say that few books have impacted my walk with Christ like this book has. My Utmost is a collection of the thoughts and teachings of the Scotsman Oswald Chambers that his wife put together after his untimely death at age 43. Even though Chambers lived a century ago, you'd never know it because his insights are so dead-on.

I want to share the entry for April 25 from My Utmost in its entirety because Chambers simply puts it better than I can and there is no need to try to reproduce what he has already stated so compellingly:

"Be ready in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2)

Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.

I have to confess that far too often I do not give God my very best because I don't feel "inspired" at that moment. Lord, help me to give my best work to You regardless of how I feel, knowing that if my work is based on whether or not I feel inspired, then I've made an idol out of inspiration.

For more information on Oswald Chambers or My Utmost for His Highest go to http://utmost.org/.