In the devotional book “My Utmost for His Highest,” Oswald Chambers reminds us of our purpose. A devotional entry titled “Destined to be Holy,” Chambers wrote the following.
“We must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not destined to happiness, nor health, but to holiness. Today we have far too many desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by them. Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may later be fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance to us to decrease. The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will accept the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a person must have the right relationship with God.”[1]
Chambers was born in 1874 and died in 1917. Admittedly this was a dynamic time historically. This period in history finds itself in what is considered the industrial revolution. There were enormous innovations developed during this period that forever changed industry, education and culture. It is not surprising then to read Chamber’s warning of the distractions of everyday life.
I wonder what he may think if given the opportunity to view the world as we dwell in it this day. We live in a world that is almost nothing but distraction. We can be entertained by various forms of media twenty-four hours a day continually for the remainder of our lives, if we so choose. We are inundated both visually and auditorily with external stimulation being projected upon us. At no other point in history did the human race need to sort through the plethora of stimulation as we do today.
Not only is it disturbing to recognize the breadth of distraction we wade through on a daily basis, it is all the more disturbing if we consider the content of most of the distractions offered by the secular world. The world we live in celebrates depravity with unprecedented fervor. The warning offered by the prophet Isaiah made reality before our very eyes.
“20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight (Isaiah 5:20-21 NASB95)!”
It is this day that the words of Oswald Chambers are all the more vital for us to consider. He offers this encouragement as stated earlier. “The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will accept the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a person must have the right relationship with God.” Without a right relationship with our Almighty Creator, we are lost to a dismal existence. Apart from God we are condemned in a world of temporal pleasures that will never be fully satisfied as our sinful nature is never content with just enough. Therefore make an effort to be set apart. To be holy as our God is Holy. Our faith in Jesus as our Savior grants us access to a choice. Salvation sets us free from slavery to the sin nature. In this freedom, we are given a choice. We are destined to choose. Do you choose complacency with a world that is rife with evil and set to suffer the wrath of the Almighty or do you choose to step out of the desert and into the promise?
[1] Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest (Discovery House. Grand Rapids, MI 2015)
Corby Shuey 