Oswald Chambers: Joy - Strength In The LordSample

Suppose our Lord had measured His life by whether or not He was a blessing to others. Why, He was a “stone of stumbling” to thousands, actually to His own neighbors, to His own nation, because through Him they blasphemed the Holy Ghost, and in His own country “He did not [do] many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).

If Our Lord had measured His life by its actual results, He would have been full of misery. We are not here to win souls, to do good to others; that is the natural outcome, but it is not our aim, and this is where so many of us cease to be followers. We will follow God as long as He makes us a blessing to others, but when He does not we will not follow. The joy of anything, from a blade of grass upward, is to fulfill its created purpose—that we should be to the praise of His glory.

Reflection Questions: How do I measure my life? Do I use God’s measurements of faithfulness and godliness or the worldly values of popularity, productivity, and efficiency?

Quotation taken from The Love of God, © Discovery House Publishers