.devotion.

below is today's devotional in oswald chambers' my utmost for his highest. it really encouraged me.

look unto me, and be ye saved. isaiah (45:22)

do we expect god to come to us with his blessings and save us? he says - look unto me, and be saved. the great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on god, and it is his blessings that make it difficult. troubles nearly always make us look to god; his blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere. the teaching of the sermon on the mount is, in effect - narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on jesus christ. "look unto me."

many of us have a mental conception of what a christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on god. there is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough. "look unto me" and - not "you will be saved," but "you are saved." the very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on him. we get preoccupied and sulky with god, while all the time he is saying - "look up and be saved." the difficulties and trials - the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to god.

rouse yourself up and look to god. build your hope on him. no matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to him. "look unto me," and salvation is, the moment you look.