From My Utmost for His Highest

Rise, let us be going —Matthew 26

One of Chambers’ strengths is the ability to take the smallest piece of Scripture and draw it into a real life scenario. It’s a great yin to my yang because I try and expand perspective and put Scripture into the context of the greater story at play within the Gospel.

Chambers looks at this experience the Apostles had in Gethsemane and the despair they felt at falling asleep in Jesus’ last hours. His message is that Christians will fail, but that to avoid despair we must “rise… [and] be going.”

In the course of these 75 verses, linked above in Matthew 26, we near the crescendo of an old story. Spread over thousands of years, this is the story of a great One, worthy of love and praise, Who is denied it by an entire family-your family. So over many lifetimes, One follows, waits, helps, encourages and admonishes with loving wisdom at each turn so that at just the right moment…

    From My Utmost for His Highest

Samuel answered, ’Speak, for Your servant hears’ —1 Samuel 3

A woman walks in to a restaurant to meet a friend. He’s late, as usual, so she sits down to wait at the table.

When the man arrives, he immediately launches into everything that’s happened to him since they last met—what he’s lost, what he’s done, what he needs. He’s unstoppable. The man cares deeply about (some of) the things and people he’s discussing, but he just goes on and on.

Lunch comes. The check comes. And just as abruptly as it started…

    From My Utmost for His Highest

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You —Isaiah 26

What was it like to enter the throne room of a king like Alexander the Great or Xerxes or Nebuchadnezzar?

I imagine it to be protected by huge golden doors. Guards would be everywhere and the court would be full of people looking on and leaning in to hear the conversation at the throne. I imagine a long red carpet leading to a giant throne where the king would sit.

It would be beautiful, but also a place of fear because…