Will To Be Faithful
Joshua 24:15
The Big Idea
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”
Joshua 24:15
Chambers teaches that faithfulness to God is not a passive drift or an automatic outcome—it is a deliberate act of the will. Each new proposal God places before us requires a fresh, conscious choice to align ourselves with Him, made without seeking the counsel or approval of others.
The Simple Takeaway
God has placed a new and specific proposal before two disciples—something He is asking them to step into that will require genuine commitment.
Person A talks it over with several trusted friends, listens to their concerns and hesitations, weighs the opinions of those around them, and gradually finds the initial sense of calling has been diluted by the noise of other voices until it is barely recognizable.
Person B also values community, but recognizes that this particular decision is between them and God—they recall a previous moment of clear surrender, deliberately reclaim that posture, and make the choice without needing everyone around them to understand it.
Chambers calls readers to the robust, independent, personally-owned declaration: ‘I will serve You’—made with the will, not inherited from the consensus of those around them.
One Question to Sit With
Is there a proposal God has been placing before you that you have been deferring, waiting for circumstances or others’ approval that will never fully come?
Read the original devotional at utmost.org. This is independent analysis and commentary on Oswald Chambers' work.
Commentary
“A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will—I must exercise it, putting it into action.”
The will cannot be surrendered—it must be actively directed
Chambers makes a subtle but important point: you cannot abdicate your will to God—you can only use your will to choose God. Surrender is not passivity; it is the most active and decisive use of the will—employing it to place yourself under God’s lordship.
“I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit.”
Receiving and obeying both require active willing
Even receiving from God is not a passive experience—it requires a willingness that opens us to receive. And obedience is never accidental; it is always chosen. Chambers insists on the active, repeated engagement of the will in every dimension of the spiritual life.
“When God gives me a vision of truth, there is never a question of what He will do, but only of what I will do.”
God’s faithfulness is settled; ours is the open question
There is remarkable clarity in this formulation. What God will do is not the variable—His faithfulness, His power, His love are constants. The entire question is what we will do with what He has revealed. This places the responsibility squarely and honestly where it belongs.
“Recall the moment when you were saved, or first recognized Jesus, or realized some truth. It was easy then to yield your allegiance to God.”
Past moments of surrender are a resource for present ones
Chambers offers a practical strategy: when facing a new moment of required surrender, return deliberately to previous moments when surrender came clearly and freely. Those memories of God’s faithfulness and your own genuine response are resources to draw on, not just nostalgia.
“Your choice must be a deliberate determination—it is not something into which you will automatically drift.”
Faithfulness is chosen, never drifted into
No one accidentally becomes faithful to God. The current of ordinary life, left unchecked, does not naturally carry us toward greater commitment—it diffuses it. Faithfulness requires deliberate, repeated, conscious choosing against the drift of competing loyalties and comfortable defaults.
“The proposal is between you and God—do not ‘confer with flesh and blood’ about it.”
Some decisions belong only between the soul and God
Chambers does not counsel general isolation from community, but he draws a sharp line around decisions that are truly between an individual and God. To take such decisions to others for validation or permission is to dilute their essential character—they become social negotiations rather than acts of personal faith.
“You have no business trying to find out where God is leading—the only thing God will explain to you is Himself.”
God explains Himself, not the destination
This is one of Chambers’ most striking and freeing statements. We spend enormous energy trying to determine exactly where God is taking us—wanting the plan, the timeline, the outcome mapped in advance. But God’s invitation is into relationship with Himself, and the route is disclosed only as we walk it.
“‘Will to be faithful and give other people credit for being faithful too.”
Choosing faithfulness includes releasing others to their own choices
Chambers adds a generous final note: when we make our own clear choice to be faithful, we should resist the temptation to judge or manage others’ faithfulness. They are on their own journey with God. Our job is to declare our own commitment, not to orchestrate everyone else’s.