Let Us Keep to the Point

In the introduction to my edition of My Utmost for His Highest, Richard Halverson, former chaplain to the US Senate, writes: "Through the years Chambers has kept me on course by bringing me back to Jesus. Believing Jesus, not just believing my beliefs about Jesus, is basic." I appreciate his distinction -- "believing Jesus, not just my beliefs about Jesus." I might have said, "believing Jesus, not just believing in Jesus." Through this pilgrimage, I hope to progress toward the former whereas most of my life has been structured around the latter. I believed God wanted me to attend church faithfully, serve in the church, teach Sunday school, marry a Christian, be a supportive wife, serve my family as a stay-at-home mom, and in the course of time, home school my children. Certainly not bad things, but in and of themselves those behaviors, those actions, those roles, do not constitute my utmost for his highest.

While I began this blog at the beginning of December, I see the last few weeks as a sort of warm-up, a preparation, a test to see if I could keep up the daily discipline of a blog like this. I still feel very much at the beginning of my pilgrimage, and Oswald's point today comes to me like a question -- the answer to which will be the blast from the starter's pistol: On what point has Jesus asked you to yield to him?

I prayed before beginning to write and asked Jesus to reveal the answer. It isn't entirely clear to me yet; so we may have a few false starts, but as I grow in my understanding of what Jesus is asking of me, I will share that. In the meantime, I can prepare my heart for the traps Oswald describes.

He writes that we are kept from all-out yielding to Jesus by an "overweening consideration for ourselves." I had to look up "overweening." (Online dictionaries are a handy tool when reading Oswald.) Dictionary.com defines overweening as exaggerated, excessive or arrogant. When Jesus reveals my yielding point, I will listen for the beginnings of internal debate and the subsequent crisis where Jesus requires me to choose -- his way or mine -- and I will remember Oswald's advice that surrender is the answer.

Part of the debate, Oswald suggests, will be me telling God that he doesn't know what he's asking. Again, I will attempt to remember Oswald's words:

"Keep to the point; He does know. Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only -- My Utmost for His Highest."