When viewing the religious scene today, we are tempted to fix on one or another weakness and say, "This is what is wrong with the church. If this were corrected, we could recapture the glory of the early church and have pentecostal times back with us again."
This tendency to oversimplification is itself a weakness and should be guarded against always, especially when dealing with anything as complex as religion as it occurs in modern times.
It takes a very young man to reduce all our present woes to a single disease and cure the whole thing with one simple remedy. Older and wiser heads will be more cautious, having learned that the prescribed nostrum seldom works for the reason that the diagnosis has not been correct. Nothing is that simple.
Few spiritual diseases occur alone. Almost all are complicated by the presence of others and are so vitally interrelated as they spread over the whole religious body that it would take the wisdom of a Solomon to find a single cure.
For this reason, I am hesitant to point to any one defect in present-day Christianity and make all our troubles to stem from it alone.
That so-called Bible religion in our times is suffering rapid decline is so evident as to need no proof, but just what has brought about this decline is not so easy to discover.
I can only say that I have observed one significant lack among evangelical Christians which might turn out to be the real cause of most of our spiritual troubles.
Of course, if that were true, then the supplying of that lack would be our most critical need.
The great deficiency to which I refer is the lack of spiritual discernment, especially among our leaders. . . .
verse
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. Turn my eyes from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
— Psalm 119:18,37
thought
Are we sufficiently tuned into God to distinguish spiritual reality from that which falls short of it? Are our spiritual eyes fixed on Him?
prayer
O Lord, help me to fix my eyes on You and away from worthless things.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer
This need for external support for our sagging faith accounts for the introduction into religious activities of that welter of shoddy claptrap that has become the characteristic mark of modern Christianity. . . . To guarantee immunity to this disease of the heart, we must cultivate a spirit of faith and humility.
This works as an antibody to destroy the moral bacteria that cause bloat and distention.
If we have faith, we will be concerned only with what God thinks of us. We can smile off man's opinion, whether it be favorable or unfavorable, and go our God-appointed way in complete confidence.
The excited devotees of the twin gods Publicity and Reputation will race past us with no more than a pitying glance.
The self-acknowledged Great of the kingdom, the Eminent, the Outstanding will ignore us or patronize us or perhaps seek to cultivate us for their ends.
We in the meantime will step neither to the right hand nor to the left. We will honor all men, be courteous to everyone, love our Christian brothers, glorify God and fear nobody.
It takes a lot of courage and independence of mind to insist upon being just what we are, and no more.
But when the Lord comes, we will not have cause to regret that we did.
verse
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
— Galatians 6:14
thought
Doingcan never substitute for being. Worthwhile doing flows out of wholesome being.
prayer
Help me to be realistic, Lord, in understanding who I am in myself and who I am in You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
We may need to look closely to discover the relation between inflation and unbelief, but such a relation does nevertheless exist.
The man of faith is so sure of his position before God that he can quietly allow himself to be overlooked, discredited, deflated, without a tremor of anxiety.
He is willing to wait out God's own good time and let the wisdom of the future judgment reveal his true size and worth.
The man of unbelief dare not do this.
He is so unsure of himself that he demands immediate and visible proof of his success. His deep unbelief must have the support of present judgment. He looks eagerly for evidence to assure him that he is indeed somebody. And of course this hunger for present approval throws him open to the temptation to inflate his work for the sake of appearances.
This need for external support for our sagging faith accounts for the introduction into religious activities of that welter of shoddy claptrap that has become the characteristic mark of modern Christianity.
The church and the minister must make a showing, and nothing would seem to be ruled out that will add to the illusion of success.
At the root of this is plain unbelief.
Religious people are simply not willing to wait till the Lord comes to receive their reward.
They demand it now, and they get it, a circumstance over which they will shed bitter tears in the day of Christ.
verse
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
— Second Corinthians 12:10
thought
Paul delighted in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties. Delighted in them! Why? Because he knew that when he was weak, precisely then he was strong.
prayer
May I desire Your approval and Your strength, Lord, only Yours.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Bible warns against inflation, only it says it another way; it calls it being "puffed up."
There are two ways to increase size: one is to grow normally, the other to become artificially distended.
The first indicates health, the second, disease.
The well-fed child grows larger each year; only the abdomen of the tiny famine victim grows, and that by a pathological distention that tells of approaching death.
In the realm of the spiritual, there is real danger that we may mistake unhealthy bloat for true growth. Paul dealt frankly with this danger and pointed out that being puffed up and being built up are two different things.
We all know how prone we are to find what we are looking for in the Scriptures and in our own lives. When appraising ourselves, we sometimes unconsciously adopt the technique of the defense attorney, that of playing up everything favorable to us and conversely playing down whatever would put us in an unfavorable light.
While considering my own ministry, I have often caught myself magnifying every small victory out of all fair proportion and at the same time alibiing my failures and weaknesses.
It is the old trick of seeing what we want to see and closing our eyes to the things we would rather forget.
This is inflation, and unless it is judged and forsaken, it can result in a completely false estimate of our life and work.
verse
. . . We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
— First Corinthians 8:1
thought
Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. Knowledge puffs us up. Love builds others up. Knowledge, unless tempered by love and understanding, can produce ego obesity.
prayer
Deliver me, Lord, from ego inflation. But please don't show me all at oncehow weak and unloving I really am.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
For all his faults, or perhaps because of them, Peter could do one thing superbly: he could shed tears of grief when he had offended his Savior.
The ability to repent is a sweet treasure, and one that is rare among us these days.
If we had Peter's penitent heart, we might go on to have his purity and his power.
Should the contemplation of Peter's faults give aid and comfort to an impenitent heart, then that heart has only itself to blame.
God never intended that we should hide our unconfessed sins behind the confessed faults of a saint. Peter's contrary nature drove him to God.
Unless ours does the same, Peter will have lived in vain for us.
Anyway, we are glad Peter lived, and we are glad Christ found him.
He is so much like so many of us, at least in his weaknesses. It only remains for us to learn also the secret of his strength.
verse
The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered . . . And he went outside and wept bitterly.
— Luke 22:61-62
thought
Judas Iscariot and Peter tragically failed their Lord. They staggered in dark Saturday and in that darkness Judas sank. Peter stumbled through it to the brightness of Resurrection morning and beyond to the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. So can we!
prayer
Thank You, Lord. I don't have to sink endlessly in failure. There is forgiveness and enablement in You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/