The School of Obedience

While it doesn't approach the heights of his classic With Christ in the School of Prayer or his soaring The Holiest of All, The School of Obedience is solid Andrew Murray.

The eight short chapters of this book (with an epilogue, "Note on the Morning Watch") make the case for a life of utter, wholehearted obedience to God, like the obedience of Jesus: obedient "unto death." The fourth chapter, titled, "The Morning Watch in the Life of Obedience," was to me the highlight of this fine little book. He writes,

Think first of the motive principle that will make us love and faithfully keep the morning watch. If we take it upon us simply as a duty, and a necessary part of our religious life, it will very soon become a burden. Or, if the chief thought be our own happiness and safety, that will not supply the power to make it truly attractive. There is only one thing will suffice—the desire for fellowship with God....To have more of God, to know Him better, to receive from Him the communication of His love and strength, to have our life filled with His—it is for this He invites us to enter the inner chamber and shut the door.

Unless we beware, the Word, which is meant to point us away to God, may actually intervene and hide Him from us....It is only by the teaching of the Holy Ghost that we can get at the real meaning of what God means by His Word, and that the Word will really reach into our inner life, and work in us.... If you accustom yourself to study the Bible without an earnest and very definite purpose to obey, you are getting hardened in disobedience.Never read God’s will concerning you without honestly giving up yourself to do it at once, and asking grace to do so. God has given us His Word, to tell us what He wants us to do and what grace He has provided to enable us to do it.

Do not be content with anything less than seeing the face of God.

If it be true that God alone is the fountain of all love and good and happiness, and that to have as much as possible of His presence and His fellowship, of His will and His service, is our truest and highest happiness, surely then to meet Himself alone in the morning watch ought to be our first care.

The School of Obedience is a short read, long on solid insight and exhortation.