QuoteProject
The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathan; he is useful and does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord.
Oswald Chambers
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The true purpose of a missionary is to fulfill God's will rather than seeking personal usefulness or success.

This quote emphasizes that the primary motivation of a missionary should be to obey and fulfill the will of God, rather than focusing on the outcomes of their actions such as being useful or converting others. It suggests that while effectiveness may occur as a result of their efforts, it should not be the core intention; the ultimate aim is divine obedience and service.

Themes

MissionaryGod'S WillPurposeFaithObedience

In practice

Example use cases

In a sermon discussing purpose in life, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of intentions over results.

More from Oswald Chambers

Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.
Oswald ChambersRead
Never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer your prayer.
Oswald ChambersRead
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God.
Oswald ChambersRead
When we preach the love of God there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals not first the love of God but the intense, blazing holiness of God, with His love at the center of that holiness.
Oswald ChambersRead
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration.
Oswald ChambersRead
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.
Oswald ChambersRead

Similar quotes

Judging is a lonely job in which a man is, as near as may be, an island entire.
Abe FortasRead
What we see as death, empty space, or nothingness is only the trough between the crests of this endlessly waving ocean. It is all part of the illusion that there should seem to be something to be gained in the future, and that there is an urgent necessity to go on and on until we get it. Yet just as there is no time but the present, and no one except the all-and-everything, there is never anything to be gained - though the zest of the game is to pretend that there is.
Alan WattsRead
Giving is more than a responsibility-it is a privilege; more than an act of obedience-it is evidence of our faith.
William Arthur WardRead
...The hagaddah came to Sarajevo for a reason. It was here to test us, to see if there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox. p. 361
Geraldine BrooksRead
Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason.
Octavio PazRead
Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is - it is her shadow.
Ambrose BierceRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.