A Devotion from Oswald Chambers

Arise from the dead. Eph. 5:14.

All initiative is not inspired. A man may say to you—‘Buck up, take your disinclination by the

throat, throw it overboard, and walk out into the thing!’ That is ordinary human initiative. But

when the Spirit of God comes in and says, in effect, ‘Buck up,’ we find that the initiative is

inspired.

We all have any number of visions and ideals when we are young, but sooner or later we

find that we have no power to make them real. We cannot do the things we long to do, and we

are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead, and God has to come and say—“Arise

from the dead.” When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous power

that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. The remarkable thing

about spiritual initiative is that the life comes after we do the ‘bucking up.’ God does not give us

overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He

says—“Arise from the dead,” we have to get up; God does not lift us up. Our Lord said to the

man with the withered hand—“Stretch forth thy hand,” and as soon as the man did so, his hand

was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are

inspired of God because He gives life immediately.