This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Don’t Slack Off”, promises that believers who “remain in Jesus” through concentrated spiritual focus achieve supernatural prayer power where “whatever you wish” will be granted, becoming “the will of God” and making choices that are actually “God’s foreordained decrees.”
Here’s a different approach:
When Pastor David’s church launched their new prayer ministry, he taught Chambers’ promise enthusiastically. Members were encouraged to spend daily time “remaining in Jesus” so their prayers would be automatically answered. The more spiritual you became, David explained, the more your will aligned with God’s, making your requests divinely guaranteed.
Maria, a devoted member, embraced this teaching completely. She spent an hour each morning in prayer and Bible study, focusing her spiritual energies on Christ’s atonement. When her husband lost his job, she confidently prayed for quick reemployment, believing her spiritual discipline had earned her answered prayers.
Months passed. Her husband remained unemployed. Their savings dwindled. Maria increased her prayer time, convinced she wasn’t “remaining in Jesus” properly. Pastor David suggested she had unconfessed sin blocking her prayers, or wasn’t trusting enough, or was asking for something outside God’s will.
The spiritual gaslighting devastated Maria more than the financial stress. She began to question her faith, her worthiness, her ability to hear from God. The promise that had seemed so encouraging became a source of shame and self-doubt.
Meanwhile, her neighbor Jennifer took a different approach to their family’s crisis. Instead of intensifying prayer, she intensified action. She helped Maria’s husband update his resume and practice interview skills. She connected him with her network of professional contacts. She researched local job training programs and unemployment benefits.
Jennifer’s “ministry” wasn’t hidden spiritual intercession but visible practical support. She didn’t claim divine power over circumstances—she simply used her human resources to help. Her prayers, when she offered them, were simple requests for wisdom and strength, not demands for specific outcomes.
When Maria’s husband finally found work, it came through Jennifer’s networking, not through Maria’s spiritual discipline. The job was different from what they’d hoped for—lower pay, longer commute—but it was real employment that addressed their actual needs.
Maria realized that her months of intensified prayer had actually distracted her from taking practical steps to help their situation. The fruit that mattered hadn’t come from spiritual concentration but from human connection and concrete action.
Reflection Question: When has focusing on practical action been more effective than intensifying prayer or spiritual discipline?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 