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TEAM TALK
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
All Noble Things are Difficult
Enter ye in at the strait gate…: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way…. — Matthew 7:13-14
If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is
gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so
appreciate the marvellous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?
God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good
pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to
do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practised. The crisis will reveal
whether we have been practising or not. If we obey the Spirit of God and practise in our physical life what God has put
in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand
by us.
Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us
for all we are worth. Jesus is bringing many “sons unto glory,” and God will not shield us from the requirements of a
son. God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milk sops. It takes a tre-
mendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make
an effort to be noble.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoul-
ders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces
he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for
him.” The Shadow of an Agony, 1166 R
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