Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.
Oswald ChambersRead
As long as we are flippant and stupid and shallow and think that we know ourselves, we shall never give ourselves over to Jesus Christ; but when once we become conscious that we are infinitely more than we can fathom, and infinitely greater in possibility either for good or bad than we can know, we shall be only too glad to hand ourselves over to Him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the need for self-awareness and humility in order to surrender to a higher power.
Oswald Chambers suggests that our superficial understanding of ourselves hinders our ability to fully commit to Jesus Christ. He argues that true self-awareness reveals our vast potential for both good and evil, which, when recognized, inspires a willing surrender to a higher purpose and guidance.
Themes
Self-AwarenessSurrenderHumilityPotentialFaith
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about personal growth, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of humility.
More from Oswald Chambers
All quotes →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
Faith never knows where it is being led, or it would not be faith. True faith is content to travel under sealed orders.
J. Oswald SandersRead
I'm really very sorry for you all, but it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.
W. S. GilbertRead
People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Appetite is essentially insatiable, and where it operates as a criterion of both action and enjoyment (that is, everywhere in the Western world since the sixteenth century) it will infallibly discover congenial agencies (mechanical and political) of expression.
Marshall McluhanRead
When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ, who gives you the meaning of life. When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ, who is the fulfillness of humanity. And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world look to Christ.
Pope John Paul IiRead
At that point, Noriko finally breaks down and begins to cry sobbing into her hands as the floodgates open - this young woman who has suffered in silence for so long, this good woman who refuse to believe she's good, for only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.
Paul AusterRead