Tag: God Alone

God-Thirsty

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Vance Havnerby Vance Havner

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Psalm 42:1

There is much in our religious life today that is cheap and superficial. There is plenty of glorified big business, wheels within wheels. Men, methods, money, drives and movements and projects are abundant. But, as in other centuries, there are souls here and there who are sick of all that and whose consuming thirst is to know God. Most people are too busy raising quotas and thinking up slogans to walk with God. It takes time to be holy, but who takes time?

It is to be hoped that a new true mysticism will appear and that in this modern bedlam some saints will emerge whose business will be to know God through His Son by His Spirit. We are out to know everything, but never were we more ignorant of God.

God-thirsty souls! “Now Thee alone I seek!” “He satisfieth the longing soul.”

by Vance Havner

Vision and Darkness

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Oswald Chambersby Oswald Chambers

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. —Genesis 15:12

Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in “the shadow of His hand” (Isaiah 49:2). The saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a “darkness” that comes from too much light— that is the time to listen. The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light. When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10-11).

Do I trust at all in the flesh? Or have I learned to go beyond all confidence in myself and other people of God? Do I trust in books and prayers or other joys in my life? Or have I placed my confidence in God Himself, not in His blessings? “I am Almighty God…”— El-Shaddai, the All-Powerful God (Genesis 17:1). The reason we are all being disciplined is that we will know God is real. As soon as God becomes real to us, people pale by comparison, becoming shadows of reality. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God.

by Oswald Chambers