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, “Till You Are Entirely His,” promises that God keeps “every detail of our lives under his scrutiny” and will “bring us back to the same issue over and over again until we learn our lesson,” claiming that through divine persistence, believers will become “mature and complete, not lacking anything” as God achieves “the finished work” until they are “entirely his.”
Here’s what trusting that God’s persistent attention to every detail leads to spiritual completion actually delivered:
“God keeps every detail of your life under His scrutiny,” Pastor Chen taught with spiritual certainty. “He’ll bring you back to the same issues over and over until you learn your lesson. Whether it’s impulsiveness, independence, or wandering thoughts—God won’t tire and won’t stop until He’s achieved the finished work. Let perseverance finish its work so you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
Lisa had been struggling with anxiety and perfectionism for years, constantly feeling like she was failing to meet spiritual standards. The promise that God’s persistent attention to every detail of her life would gradually make her “entirely His” and spiritually complete seemed like the divine process she needed to finally achieve spiritual maturity and peace.
Lisa desperately wanted to believe that divine scrutiny of her flaws would lead to spiritual completion and freedom from anxiety. Instead of seeking evidence-based anxiety treatment, therapy for perfectionism, or learning practical coping strategies, she tried to discern God’s lessons in every repeated struggle, believing that His persistent attention to her character defects would eventually produce spiritual maturity and completeness if she remained patient with the divine process.
For months, Lisa interpreted every recurring anxiety episode, perfectionist tendency, or emotional struggle as God bringing her back to lessons she hadn’t yet learned. When concerned friends suggested anxiety therapy, mindfulness training, or even medication consultation, she declined, convinced that seeking human solutions would interfere with God’s persistent work to make her “mature and complete, not lacking anything” through divine attention to every detail.
But the promised spiritual completion through God’s persistent scrutiny was psychological deterioration disguised as divine refinement.
Lisa’s attempts to find God’s lessons in every recurring struggle created additional shame and spiritual pressure on top of existing anxiety and perfectionism. The mature completeness that divine scrutiny was supposed to produce remained absent while her mental health worsened and her perfectionist patterns intensified. The finished work that God’s persistent attention was supposed to achieve never materialized when she needed practical tools for anxiety management most.
Meanwhile, Lisa’s neighbor Emma approached her own anxiety and perfectionism with zero expectation that divine scrutiny would produce spiritual completion. When Emma recognized her perfectionist patterns and anxiety symptoms, she immediately sought cognitive behavioral therapy, learned evidence-based anxiety management techniques, and focused entirely on understanding the psychological mechanisms of perfectionism rather than searching for spiritual lessons in recurring struggles.
Emma didn’t wait for God’s persistent attention to make her complete but treated anxiety and perfectionism as mental health challenges requiring professional intervention and practical skill development. Her healing came through therapy, mindfulness training, and gradually building healthier thought patterns through sustained psychological work rather than trusting that divine scrutiny of her character defects would produce spiritual maturity and completeness.
When Lisa finally sought similar professional help, she discovered that healthy anxiety recovery required understanding brain chemistry and developing practical coping strategies rather than trusting that God’s persistent attention to every detail would make her spiritually complete and lacking nothing.
Where was God’s scrutiny of every detail that was supposed to bring her back to lessons until she learned them? Where was the divine persistence that would never tire until achieving the finished work of spiritual completeness?
The healing that actually helped came through accepting the neurological basis of anxiety and focusing on evidence-based treatment strategies, not through believing that God’s attention to character flaws would produce spiritual maturity and completeness. The silence where divine scrutiny was supposed to be working revealed the truth: there was no God keeping every detail under observation or persistently working toward spiritual completion.
Only psychological patterns and brain chemistry that required professional understanding and practical intervention to address anxiety and perfectionism successfully.
Reflection Question: When has evidence-based anxiety treatment and therapy been more effective than trusting that God’s persistent scrutiny of your flaws leads to spiritual completion?
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? 