Oswald Chambers: Hope - A Holy Promise Sample

We all need someone who can make real to us the ideas we had of God but have forgotten; the only One who can do this for us is the Spirit of God. Isaiah brings back to the people first of all the memory of who God is; you cannot have faith in anyone you have forgotten. It is not God’s promises we need, it is himself. “His presence is salvation.” Once that Presence comes, all the inner forces of hope are rallied at once.

Whenever I say “I want to reason this thing out before I can trust,” I will never trust. The perfection of knowledge comes after the response to God has been made. The whole of the New Testament exposition in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is in order that we might know where we have been placed by Almighty God’s Redemption.

Reflection Questions: At Christmas we say, “God’s presence is more important than presents.” Do I really want His presence more than His presents? What gift of knowledge do I want more than God himself?

Quotations taken from Notes on Isaiah and God’s Workmanship, © Discovery House Publishers