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, “Personal Deliverance”, promises that God will guard believers’ lives wherever he sends them, claiming those devoted to Jesus need not seek justice for themselves because God will “rescue” and provide divine protection to those who trust completely rather than relying on common sense.
Here’s what trusting in promised deliverance actually delivered:
“God will guard your life wherever he sends you,” her pastor assured confidently. “Don’t worry about fair treatment or stand up for yourself. Focus on devotion to Christ, and he will provide personal deliverance from whatever you encounter.”
Rebecca had just accepted a teaching position at a severely underfunded inner-city school. The working conditions looked brutal, but this spiritual framework promised divine protection for those who remained devoted rather than fighting for themselves.
When administrators assigned her classes of 45 students without adequate supplies, Rebecca didn’t advocate for better conditions—that would be seeking “great things for herself.” When colleagues bullied her for maintaining academic standards, she accepted persecution as blessed rather than defending herself.
God would rescue her if she remained spiritually devoted.
But the promised deliverance was a cruel fiction. Rebecca’s health deteriorated under impossible working conditions. Her students suffered in overcrowded classrooms with insufficient resources. The administration exploited her passive approach, piling on additional responsibilities without compensation.
Where was the divine protection for someone devoted to Christ’s work?
Meanwhile, her colleague Marcus approached identical challenges with zero expectation of supernatural rescue. Instead of waiting for divine deliverance, Marcus documented unsafe working conditions and brought them to the union. He advocated for reasonable class sizes, demanded adequate supplies, pushed back against administrative exploitation.
When faced with retaliation, Marcus stood up for himself and his students through established labor protections. He didn’t expect God to guard his life or provide personal deliverance. His “common sense” approach—which Chambers would criticize as unspiritual—proved infinitely more effective than spiritual passivity.
When the school board finally addressed unsafe conditions and overcrowding, it wasn’t because God had rescued devoted teachers like Rebecca. Change came because teachers like Marcus had documented problems, organized collectively, and demanded accountability through legal processes.
Rebecca’s breakthrough came when she abandoned the spiritual framework and started advocating professionally. The “personal deliverance” she’d been promised was completely absent, while practical advocacy actually improved conditions for everyone.
The justice that transformed the school didn’t come from divine intervention but from teachers who refused to accept exploitation as spiritual discipline. Standing up for fair treatment wasn’t spiritual failure but professional responsibility.
Where was God’s promised rescue for devoted believers? Where was the divine protection that was supposed to come from trusting rather than using common sense?
The silence where personal deliverance was supposed to manifest revealed the truth: no divine guardian exists to protect devoted believers from exploitation. Only human advocacy and legal protections create actual change in unjust situations.
Reflection Question: When has advocating for fair treatment been more effective than accepting poor conditions as 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? 