In August
1914, when Britain entered World War I, Oswald Chambers was 40 years old with a
wife and a 1-year-old daughter. It wasn’t long before men were joining the army
at the rate of 30,000 a day, people were asked to sell their automobiles and
farm horses to the government, and lists of the dead and wounded began
appearing in daily newspapers. The nation faced economic uncertainty and peril.
A month
into the war, Chambers spoke of the spiritual challenge facing followers of
Christ: “We must take heed that in the present calamities, when war and
devastation and heart-break are abroad in the world, we do not shut ourselves
up in a world of our own and ignore the demand made on us by our Lord and our
fellowmen for the service of intercessory prayer and hospitality and care.”
God’s
call to His people rings true in every age: “If you extend your soul to the
hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the
darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday” (Isa. 58:10).
Fear causes us to grasp what we have; faith in God opens our hands and hearts to others. We walk in His light when we help others, not hoard for ourselves.
