03/30/2026 – Wisdom from Oswald: “There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.”
Holiness v. Hardness Towards God
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
And He…wondered that there was no intercessor. — Isaiah 59:16. (*A-comment below)
“The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.
Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God — “I don’t see how You are going to do it.” This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.
Are we so worshipping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?
“But there is no one interceding properly” — then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.”
_____________________________________
Soli Deo Gloria!
Comments:
______________________________
(*A):
First, let’s look at the entire verse: “He saw that there was no man — He was amazed that there was no one interceding; so His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness supported Him.” Isaiah 59:16
Now, I’m looking for some interpretation commentary… So, here is “The Apologetics Study Bible footnote to 59:16:
“In context (vv 1-15), the description of sinfulness in the land shows how depraved the nation had become and how far it had strayed from God, Isaiah did not excuse himself from the picture (6:5); “no man,” not even the prophet, was standing up against injustice and ungodliness and interceding for the sinful community. The “man” God looked for, but did not find, could be (1) a righteous king like Hezekiah, (2) some other leader, besides Isaiah, who might respond to His messages through the prophet, or (3) no “man” at all, since the nation’s problems were beyond human solution and God must bring salvation Himself (vv. 16-21)”
For #1 and #2, the best of men are men at best, so I submit #3 is the only solution, not only for salvation itself obviously, but other lasting worldly depraved sinfulness solutions.
I am adding the commentary from verse 3, as in directly correlates with this devotional message:
“the Bible encourages people to seek God in prayer, but also explains that some prayers go unheard because of barriers people erect (see 1 Peter 3:7). God does not listen to the prayers of sinful, unrepentant people (Isaiah 59: 2-3), because their trust is no truly in Him but in their own empty words (v. 4).
____________________________________________
Again, I like the “ACTS” acronym order for prayer in general: Adoration/ Confession / Thanksgiving / Supplication, or “Petition prayer” or “Intercessory” prayer. Indeed, Worship and Intercessory prayer go together. So prayer starts with Worship up front, thereby carrying through the prayer in its entirety.
Thoughts?
____________________________________________
Note:
I reference the Oswald’s original book as a reference. The actual text I use is a copy and paste
from the following website:
https://utmost.org/classic/today/#
So, I use the text from this modern day rewrite, since it sticks with the basic theme content throughout the daily devotional from the Oswald’s book.
I include this link because y’all might want to use this every single day personally without buying the original book , whereas I don’t. I have around six or seven sources I pull from in any given day.