Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.
Oswald ChambersRead
There are not three stages in spiritual life-worship, waiting, and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs. We jump from worship to waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of our Lord.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Spiritual life involves a seamless process of worship, waiting, and work, which should not be treated as separate stages.
In this quote, Oswald Chambers emphasizes that spiritual growth is not a linear journey divided into distinct phases. Instead, he suggests that worship, waiting, and work are interconnected aspects of spiritual life that should coexist harmoniously. By comparing our spiritual journey to that of 'spiritual frogs' that jump between stages, he illustrates the common tendency to segregate these components, urging us to emulate the holistic approach exemplified in the life of Christ.
Themes
SpiritualityWorshipWaitingWorkFaithGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on spirituality, I mentioned, 'There are not three stages in spiritual life,' to emphasize the importance of integrating worship, waiting, and action.
More from Oswald Chambers
All quotes βNever 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
For One in such a lofty position to stoop so low is a marvel that is staggering. What sublime humility and humble sublimeness, that the Lord of the Universe, the Divine Son of God, should stoop as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread for our salvation! Behold the humble way of God, my brothers. Therefore, do not hold yourselves to be anything of yourselves, so that you may be entirely acceptable to One Who gives Himself entirely to you.
Francis Of AssisiRead
We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided.
Phillips BrooksRead
Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.
Saint John ChrysostomRead
And with the grace of Baptism and of Eucharistic Communion I can become an instrument of God's mercy, of that beautiful mercy of God.
Pope FrancisRead
Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism.
Pope Benedict XviRead
A child of God should be a visible beatitude for joy and happiness, and a living doxology for gratitude and adoration.
Charles SpurgeonRead