Millions have read his book of daily devotions, but few of us have heard his life story. More than anything else, the words of this follower of Jesus still lead us to pray.
Christians You Should Know – Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
“We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible's idea of prayer is that we get to know God." So how do we get to know God? We need to pray!
Swell
Welcome to HT, I’m Charles Morris in Eugene, Oregon where we broadcast on KORE Radio, telling the GS that’s all about Jesus. This is a program called Christians You Should Know and in the next few minutes I want you to meet Oswald Chambers. This is a time when more of us than ever are sensing a need to pray. One widow who is a friend of this ministry depends on her late husband’s pension and also the bonds she and her late husband bought over the years to help provide for their later years. Now with General Motors going bankrupt and her once safe bonds in jeopardy, she is not so sure how she will make ends meet. Fortunately, she knows we need to pray. It was Oswald Chambers who pointed out “we look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible’s idea of prayer is that we need to know God.” So how do we get to know God? We need to pray!
Known for his pithy lines and uncanny knack for saying just the right thing on the right day in his famous My Utmost For His Highest. In fact if you are like most listeners to HAVEN Today, you need answer from high right now. Here’s 50 words to hang on to from Oswald Chambers
The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer.
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HT and Christians You Should Know, the life of Oswald Chambers. He’s one of the 50 People Every Christian Should Know – a brand new book by Warren Wiersbe. We have it as a thank you for your gift to HAVEN Ministries. Just go to haventoday.org or call our toll free number at 1-800-654-2836.
Here are 50 words of Oswald Chambers to hear carefully:
The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer.
I believe the Lord can speak to you today through the life of Oswald Chambers who also said
You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
You may have read My Utmost for His Highest, but let me tell you a little about him.
He was a Baptist preacher born in 1874. He was born in Scotland and left a university degree to study at Dunoon Bible Training College. A follower of Jesus since a youngster, he yearned for a closer walk. He says, "I was in Dunoon College as a tutor in philosophy when Dr. F. B. Meyer came and spoke about the Holy Spirit. Oswald preached and taught for a time in the USA and Japan. He founded the Bible Training College in London in 1911. Early in his young ministry years in a small English village...his preaching highly popular for miles around...his reputation and career were temporarily smashed by a lie. A young woman to whom he had ministered later came forward and charged Chambers with sexual assault. He was forced out of that church but refused to become embittered, laying the situation before God in prayer. In July 1915 he was appointed to YMCA overseas duty with the British troops in Egypt, where he later died (buried in old Cairo cemetery in 1917). His most popular devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest is a collection of talks transcribed from notes taken by his wife who went by the name “Biddy”. She once observed that the devotional collection seemed most popular with those who took their RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD SERIOUSLY. Out of initial scandalous tragedy, God raised up a man whose interpretative words regarding Christianity would endure. Faith is required in order to perceive God at work in this. If you don’t remember anything about Oswald, remember his famous lines
We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; The Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
Right now, many of our listeners are hurting and don’t know where to turn. Just last week, I got a note from a listener in Illinois.
Katie wrote to say, “My husband was laid off last November, and today in the mail we received his final severance check. i was listening to your program and felt lead to give. i would love for you to pray for us that he would find a meaningful job to provide for our family of four, but more than that, i ask you to pray (and she mentions by name members of their family) that would know Jesus more and follow Him more closely because of our circumstances. I realized tonight that of all the shows I listen to, this one draws me to Christ the most often, so I hope this helps. it isn't much, but thank you for what you do.” Katie, I just want you to know that we will continue to pray for you and your family.”
So what do we do? Well, let’s listen again to Oswald Chambers. “Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.”
He also said, “When you are at wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality.
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The Bible says in in Hebrews 4:16: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
How do we pray? Let’s go to Jesus.
Our Lord’s instructions on prayer are so simple we can all follow them: Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you". In the very next verse, Jesus gives us this promise: "everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (v. 8). There is no such thing as "unanswered prayer," if only we will ask, seek, and knock.
Note the progression. A child asks for his mother's help. But he cannot find her, so he seeks her. He still cannot find her, so he knocks at her bedroom door until she opens and answers. So with us. We ask, but when it seems he does not hear, we seek him. When it seems he is not to be found, we knock. It may seem that the door is closed, but it is not. Your Father will always open to you: "The Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" (Isaiah 30:18). He wants to hear your prayer even more than you want to pray it.
So first, go to Jesus. Second, pray with urgency. In the original Greek of the Gospels, Jesus' words are imperatives, not options but commands. Charles Spurgeon advised: "He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers." So pray urgently, and continually. Jesus' words are in the present tense: pray and keep on praying.
Third, how do we pray with continual urgency?
Begin. Make an appointment to meet with God. A man put on his calendar each day, 7-7:30, prayer. But he kept missing his appointment. Then he changed it to say 7-7:30, God. That's harder to neglect. Keep a specific prayer list, and note the ways God answers your requests.
Pray in Jesus' name: "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13-14). To pray in Jesus' "name" is to ask by his merit, to draw on his "account." If I write a million-dollar check and sign it with my name, the check is worthless. If I sign a billionaire's name, the check is good. To pray in Jesus' name is to ask the Father's help by the merit of his Son. He never refuses such a request.
Pray according to God's will: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15). He will give us what we ask, or something better.
Pray for God's glory: "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father" (John 14:13). Do you seek your glory or his?
Pray with a clean heart: "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my prayer" (Psalm 66:18-19). Is anything blocking your fellowship with your holy Lord? If you're not sure, you may ask him.
Even though you may have already become a Christian. You may have gone to the cross and let him know that you are a sinner and you need Christ Jesus as Lord Savior, but God may seem silent. If that’s the case, check yourself by these biblical standards.
Begin. Pray in Jesus’ name. Pray according to God’s will. Pray for God’s glory. Pray with a clean heart. But know that your Father wants to hear you even more than you want to be heard. So pray. Let nothing stop you. Meet with him today.
God does some things in answer to prayer that He will not do for any other reason.
We talk about prayer, read about prayer, and attend seminars about prayer.
However, few of us learn to pray effectively. We spend too much time discussing how to
pray and too little time actually doing it. Prayer isn't a spiritual function reserved for early morning or a specific time and place. It's a way of life. It's constantly acknowledging that I can do nothing without the Lord's help. It's an unconditional, ongoing surrender to His will and a moment-by-moment desire for His presence, purity, and power.
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Christians You Should Know – the life of Oswald Chambers.
A little earlier I shared Jesus’ words on praying from the great sermon on the mount. In that same sermon, Jesus spoke on worrying and said in Matthew 6 these words you no doubt have heard before. Matthew 6:33 & 34
33 … seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Fifty words from Oswald Chambers
The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer.
We’ve talked a lot about our needs relating to a job and to income. Last weekend I heard from another Haven listener in Virginia who we’ve prayed for for a long time. Her husband abused her, but she wrote to report, “marriage is getting better. I still need prayer for the hurts of my marriage but also would you pray for my husband’s salvation?”
Isn’t that amazing? God does hear our prayers and answers our prayers when we live a life of prayer. If we can pray for you, I’ll give you our contact information in just a minute.
If you would like to receive a copy of the 50 People Every Christian Needs to Know, we have copies at the ministry and more on the way. This is a brand new book by Warren Wiersbe, who for many years pastured the famous Moody Memorial Church in Chicago and was the speaker on Back to the Bible. We ask for your gift to the ministry and we’ll send your copy of this book that includes the life of Oswald Chambers. And thank you for everyone who can send a gift in these extreme times above and beyond the suggested gift amount.
So to make contact with us, just go online at haventoday.org. let us know the station you are listening to when you get in touch. You can also call us on our toll-free number at 1-800-654-2836. That’s how you can also send us your prayer request.
We’ve had so many people respond to these last programs on Christians You Should Know. Why not pass this program on to someone else? Just go to our website – haventoday.org – and there on our homepage is a place where you can type in a friend’s e-mail address with a little note from yourself. By sharing the story of Oswald Chambers you will also be sharing the great story of Jesus and I can’t think of a better act of friendship that sharing your savior, Jesus Christ.
