We live by faith, not by sight.
— 2 Corinthians 5:7
Periods of staleness in the life are not inevitable but they are common. He is a rare Christian who has not experienced times of spiritual dullness when the relish has gone out of his heart and the enjoyment of living has diminished greatly or departed altogether. Since there is no single cause of this condition there is no one simple remedy for it. Sometimes we are to blame, as for instance when we do a wrong act without immediately seeking forgiveness and cleansing; or when we permit worldly interests to grow up and choke the tender plants of the inner life. When the cause is known, and particularly when it is as uncomplex as this, the remedy is the old-fashioned one of repentance. But if after careful and candid examination of the life by prayer and the Word no real evil is discovered, we gain nothing by putting the worst construction on things and lying facedown in the dust. To say that we have not sinned when we have is to be false to the fact; to insist that we have sinned when we have not is to be false to ourselves. There comes a time when the most spiritual thing we can do is to accept cleansing from all sin as an accomplished fact and stop calling that unclean which God has called clean.
thought
There are times when the Christian life is reduced to what it essentially is ? a walk by faith. By faith, not by sight or good feelings. God sometimes leads us through a period of dark clouds and we know that He is there only by faith.
prayer
Thank You, Lord. I am saved by faith, not by feeling saved. I live, by faith not by feelings. May I clearly distinguish between feelings which can deceive and faith fixed on You.
Before there can be acceptable service there must be an acceptable life.
Before we can know how much we owe we must learn how great is the need.
Men are caught in a disaster worse than earthquake or flood, and the redeemed of the Lord are to work for their rescue. In considering these things we must not go on the defensive.
The Lord loves the artless, the candid, the childlike.
He cannot work with those who argue or bargain or plead or excuse themselves. He hides His profoundest mysteries from the wise and the prudent and reveals them unto babes.
The poor in spirit always receive the kingdom, the meek inherit the earth, the mourner is comforted and the pure in heart see God.
My old friend Tom Haire, the praying plumber, after several months of ministry in the United States, told me one day that he was going back home for a rest.
In the thickest of Irish brogues he explained how it was with him. Im preached out, he said, and I am going back to spend three months waiting on God.
There are some spiritual matters that I want to get straightened out.
I want to appear before the judgment seat now while I can do something about it.?
verse
Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
— Matthew 20:28
thought
A vital ingredient of serving is living. Christlike living will determine how we serve and why. Emergency living gives quality to emergency serving.
prayer
Lord, You came to serve, not to be served. May I serve You in serving others.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
I think that most Christians would be better pleased if the Lord did not inquire into their personal affairs too closely.
They want Him to save them, keep them happy and take them to heaven at last, but not to be too inquisitive about their conduct or service.
But He has searched us and knows us; He knows our downsitting and our uprising and understands our thoughts afar off.
There is no place to hide from those eyes that are as a flame of fire and there is no way to escape from the judgment of those feet that are like fine brass.
It is the part of wisdom to live with these things in mind. God is love and His kindness is unbounded, but He has no sympathy with the carnal mind.
He remembers that we are dust, indeed, but He refuses to tolerate the doings of the flesh.
He has given us His word; He has promised that we would never be tempted above what we were able to bear; He has placed Himself at our disposal in response to believing prayer; He has made available to us the infinite moral power of His Holy Spirit to enable us to do His will here on earth.
There is no excuse for our acting like timid weaklings.
verse
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in all the church and in Christ Jesus thoughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
— Ephesians 3:20-21
thought
Are we using the spiritual resources God has placed at our disposal? We are enabled believers. But that enablement of the Spirit must be appropriated in daily life.
prayer
How I have grieved You, Lord, in failing to utilize the spiritual dynamic You have made available to me. Teach me, Spirit of God!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it.
No man gives at all until he has given all.
No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice.
The hero is cited by his country not for the number of persons he has saved only, but for the degree of danger to himself present in his act. Service that can be done without peril, that carries no loss, no sacrifice, does not rate high in the sight of men or God.
In the work of the Church the amount one man must do to accomplish a given task is determined by how much or how little the rest of the company is willing to do. It is a rare church whose members all put their shoulder to the wheel.
The typical church is composed of the few whose shoulders are bruised by their faithful labors and the many who are unwilling to raise a blister in the service of God and their fellow men.
There may be a bit of wry humor in all this, but it is quite certain that there will be no laughter when each of us gives account to God of the deeds done in the body.
verse
. . . Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will.
— 2 Corinthians 8:3c-5
thought
Those Macedonian believers gave out of severe trial and extreme poverty. They gave joyously and generously, pleading for the privilege of giving to the saints in need. They gave as they did because they first gave themselves to the Lord.
prayer
Lord, in giving myself to You did I remember to include my billfold?
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . The needs of the people, not our own convenience, decide how far we shall go and how much we shall do.
Had there been no disaster there would have been no need for the Eternal Son to empty Himself and descend to Bethlehem?s manger.
Had there been no Fall there would have been no incarnation, no thorns, no cross.
These resulted when the divine goodness confronted the human emergency.
While Christ was the perfect example of the healthy normal man, He yet did not live a normal life. He sacrificed many pure enjoyments to give Himself to the holy work of moral rescue. His conduct was determined not by what was legitimate or innocent, but by our human need. He pleased not Himself but lived for the emergency; and as He was so are we in this world. Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be judged not by how much I have done but by how much I could have done.
In Gods sight my giving is measured not by how much I have given but by how much I could have given and how much I had left after I made my gift.
The needs of the world and my total ability to minister to those needs decide the worth of my service.
verse
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
— 1 Corinthians 12:27
thought
Some of us are much more alert than others to the major reason for our presence in this world. We are those through whom Christ seeks to reach out to people. He desires to express His love through us to people all around us.
prayer
Whom would You reach through me today, Lord? May I be Your instrument through whom You touch others.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
One mighty fact there is which for us men overwhelms all other considerations and gives significance to everything we do.
It is that the human race has left its first estate and is morally and spiritually fallen.
Since the fall of man the earth has been a disaster area and everyone lives with a critical emergency.
Nothing is normal. Everything is wrong and everyone is wrong until made right by the redeeming work of Christ and the effective operation of the Holy Spirit.
The universal disaster of the Fall compels us to think differently about our obligation to our fellow men.
What would be entirely permissible under normal conditions becomes wrong in the present situation, and many things not otherwise required are necessary because of abnormal conditions.
verse
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
— John 20:21
thought
Our Lord Jesus Christ has sent us into the world as the Father sent Him. We do not come as redeemers but as the Lord's "EMS" Sent Ones, witnessing of Him by life and word.
prayer
Lord, so easily I fall into tedium as if all were well in the world. Shock me into seeing the emergency!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . We may be known by the following:
7. What we laugh at. No one with a due regard for the wisdom of God would argue that there is anything wrong with laughter, since humor is a legitimate component of our complex nature.
Lacking a sense of humor we fall that much short of healthy humanity. But the test we are running here is not whether we laugh or not, but what we laugh at. Some things lie outside the field of pure humor. No reverent Christian, for instance, finds death funny, nor birth nor love.
No Spirit-filled man can bring himself to laugh at the Holy Scriptures, or the Church which Christ purchased with His own blood, or prayer or righteousness or human grief or pain. And surely no one who has been even for a brief moment in the presence of God could ever laugh at a story involving the Deity.
These are a few tests. The wise Christian will find others.
verse
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
— Ephesians 5:4
thought
God gives us grace to laugh at ourselves and there is much to laugh at. Other targets of humor are subject to restriction because humor can degenerate into mockery of other people and the things of God.
prayer
Thank You for the gift of humor, Lord. Make me sensitive to its misuse and misdirection. For Jesus' sake.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . We may be known by the following:
4. What we do with our leisure time. A large share of our time is already spoken for by the exigencies of civilized living, but we do have some free time. What we do with it is vital. Most people waste it staring at the television, listening to the radio, reading the cheap output of the press or engaging in idle chatter. What I do with mine reveals the kind of man I am.
5. The company we enjoy. There is a law of moral attraction that draws every man to the society most like himself. ?Being let go, they went to their own company? (Acts 4:23). Where we go when we are free to go where we will is a near-infallible index of character.
6. Whom and what we admire. I have long suspected that the great majority of evangelical Christians, while kept somewhat in line by the pressure of group opinion, nevertheless have a boundless, if perforce secret, admiration for the world.
We can learn the true state of our minds by examining our unexpressed admirations. Israel often admired, even envied, the pagan nations around them, and so forgot the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the law and the promises and the fathers. Instead of blaming Israel let us look to ourselves.
verse
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
— Colossians 3:17
thought
Our use of leisure, the company we enjoy and our secret objects of admiration disclose much about who we are. Have we subjected those areas to the Spirit's review?
prayer
Can I engage in these things in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to You? O God, show me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . We may be known by the following:
1. What we want most. We have but to get quiet, recollect our thoughts, wait for the mild excitement within us to subside, and then listen closely for the faint cry of desire. Ask your heart, What would you rather have than anything else in the world? Reject the conventional answer. Insist on the true one, and when you have heard it you will know the kind of person you are.
2. What we think about most. The necessities of life compel us to think about many things, but the true test is what we think about voluntarily. It is more than likely that our thoughts will cluster about our secret heart treasure, and whatever that is will reveal what we are. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also? (Matt. 6:21).
3. How we use our money. Again we must ignore those matters about which we are not altogether free. We must pay taxes and provide the necessities of life for ourselves and family, if any.
That is routine, merely, and tells us little about ourselves.
But whatever money is left to do with as we please that will tell us a great deal indeed.
Better listen to it.
verse
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. . . .
— 1 Peter 3:15a
thought
Those secret desires, what we think about when free to think what we will, our use of finances?revelators of who we are. Well, who are we?
prayer
O God, there is so much of me yet to be changed into what You want me to be. Increase my sensitivity to Your Spirit's promptings in those areas of life that I may surrender them to Christ's Lordship.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/