Tozer is messing with me. His devotion for God was amazing. He was so determined not to be satisfied and so carried away with desire for God and His presence.
I read (and reread) part of a chapter from "The Pursuit of God" (Chapter 5). ( also online at http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/tozer/5f00.0888/5f00.0888.05.htm ).
Devotional routines are helpful but are limited when it comes to pursuing God with our whole hearts.
“A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine age methods to our relations with God. We read our :' chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.”
Are we satisfied to splash about in the shallows?
“The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.”
Who is our model?
“For this great sickness that is upon us no one person is responsible, and no Christian is wholly free from blame. We have all contributed, directly or indirectly, to this sad state of affairs. We have been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied to desire anything better than the poor average diet with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, we have accepted one another's notions, copied one another's lives and made one another's experiences the model for our own. And for a generation the trend has been downward. Now we have reached a low place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.”
What do you think?
How can we get beyond this?
There are accuracies in this although it does seem a little harsh. Yes, we are all responsible for the personal time we devote to spiritual pursuits. In my experience I'm not sure that greater hours of devotion necessarily equals any greater clarity or inspiration than others. The world is not going to slow down so christians can spend more time 'seeking the lord'. Your boss won't understand if you are 'taking time out to discern the will of the Spirit' We live in the world more than the prayer closet. It is easy to fool ourselves in isolation from others that we are more humble and pious than we really are. Perhaps an art that is required is taking that devotional attitude into our daily routines and giving those 30 seconds (Like the song suggests) here and there in hopes of the inspiration and clarity that is required for that situation at that time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Foresight is much better.
ReplyDelete