Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional – Utmost for His Highest 18 February 2025 Topic: The Initiative against Despair

The Initiative against Despair

By Oswald Chambers

Rise! Let us go! — Matthew 26:46

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’s disciples fell asleep when they were supposed to be keeping watch. When they awoke and realized that Jesus was about to be taken, they were filled with despair.

We might imagine that this kind of despair is unusual; in fact, it’s a very common human experience. Whenever we realize that we’ve done something we can’t undo, whenever we let a magnificent opportunity pass us by, despair is the natural response. Sometimes, our feeling of despair is so deep we can’t lift ourselves out of it. At these moments, we need Jesus Christ to come to us and say, “Rise! Let us go!”

When our Lord comes to us in this way, he tells us to accept the reality of our situation. “That opportunity is lost forever,” he says. “You can’t change what has happened. But rise now, and go on.” In Gethsemane, the disciples had done something they felt was unforgivable. Jesus came with his spiritual initiative against despair, telling them to move on to the next thing. What is the next thing? If we are inspired by God, the next thing is always to trust him absolutely and to pray on the ground of his redemption.

Never let a sense of failure alter your new plans and actions. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep with Christ. Step out into the irresistible future with him.

Leviticus 23-24; Mark 1:1-22

Wisdom from Oswald

The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold.

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