Living like the Stars

Columbia Lake, Waterloo

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin"— they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon— all of these simply are as well— yet what a ministry and service they render on our behalf! So often we impair God’s designed influence, which He desires to exhibit through us, because of our own conscious efforts to be consistent and useful.

The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and "the lilies of the field"— simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.

Excerpt from Oswald Chambers' classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest.

This is part of today's devotional reading from the book, My Utmost for His Highest. Oswald Chambers' wife compiled it from his teachings after his premature death from appendicitis during World War I. Living simply and unaffectedly is contrary to our human tendency to bring attention to ourselves, our opinions, and our desires. I want...

to be wise, not just a smart know-it-all...

to bring peace, not strife...

to bring order rather than confusion...

to let God live through my life.