All things else being equal, the destiny of a man or nation may safely be predicted from the idea of God which that man or that nation holds.
No nation can rise higher than its conception of God.
While Rome held to her faith in the stern old gods of the Pantheon she remained an iron kingdom. Her citizens unconsciously imitated the character of her gods, however erroneous their conception of the Deity might have been. When Rome began to think loosely about God she began to rot inwardly, and that rot never stopped till it brought her to the ground.
So it must always be with men and nations.
A church is strong or weak just as it holds to a high or low idea of God. For faith rests not primarily upon promises, but upon character.
A believer's faith can never rise higher than his conception of God.
A promise is never better or worse than the character of the one who makes it. An inadequate conception of God must result in a weak faith, for faith depends upon the character of God just as a building rests upon its foundation.
This explains why unbelief is such a grievous sin; it is pure libel against the Lord of heaven and earth.
Unbelief judges God to be unworthy of confidence and withholds its trust from Him.
Can there be a more heinous sin than this?
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar? (1 John 5:10).
Our hearts shrink from the full implications of such a statement, but would not this seem to teach that unbelief attributes to God the character of Satan?
Jesus said of Satan, He is a liar and the father of it.
Unbelief says virtually the same thing of God.
verse
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?' Fo
— Romans 11:33-36
thought
How big is our God? Our prayer, our daily life, our worship reflect our concept of God. Let's let God be GOD in our life!
prayer
O God, forgive me for my small concept of You. In increasing measure show me who You are! In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Let us plant ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them.
The cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with a cross. The cross-separated between the dead and the living.
The timid and the fearful will cry Extreme! and they will be right.
The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final.
The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God.
The first step for any Christian who is seeking spiritual power is to accept his unique position as a son of heaven temporarily detained on the earth, and to begin to live as becometh a saint. The sharp line of demarcation between him and the world will appear at once and the world will never quite forgive him.
And the sons of earth will make him pay well for separation, but it is a price he will gladly pay for the privilege of walking in fruitfulness and power.
verse
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
— Galatians 6:14
thought
The cross of Christ marks an unbridgeable gulf between the believer and the world. Paul clearly understood that his embrace of the cross of Christ meant unmistakable severance from this world. Do we?
prayer
May my faith identification with You, O Christ, welcome Your life in me and my death to this world system. For Your glory!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Men are impressed with the message of the Church just as far and as long as she is different from themselves.
When she seeks to be like them they no longer respect her.
They believe (and rightly) that she is playing false to herself and to them.
The moral jar that results when an indoctrinated son of Adam meets a son of heaven is one of the most wholesome things that can happen to both of them. And contrary to common opinion, men are more inclined to follow the way of Christ when they are compelled to make a radical alteration in their lives than they are when the way is made easy for them.
The human heart senses its need to be changed, and when religion appears offering life without such change, it is not taken seriously by thinking men.
The superficial, the insincere, may embrace such a low-powered brand of religion, but the seeking heart must reject it as false and unreal.
All conformity to the world is a negation of our Christian character and a surrender of our heavenly position.
verse
Don't let the world around you squeeze into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within . . . (Phillips Translation).
— Romans 12:2
thought
In our efforts to be "seeker friendly" there is the danger of downplaying the radical nature of conversion, the cost to the sinful nature of daily cross-carrying, and separation from this world. For the child of God there is heavenly citizenship. This wo
prayer
O God, may You express Your love through me to the people of this world, yet keep me being squeezed into this world's mould.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Church's mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives.
Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes.
This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can miss it. But miss it we do, for we hear constantly that the Church must try to be as much like the world as possible, excepting, of course, where the world is too, too sinful; and we are told to get adjusted to the world and be all things to all men. (This use of the passage, incidentally, points up Peter's saying that Our beloved brother Paul wrote some things which the unlearned and the unstable wrest to their own destruction.)
One sure mark of the Church's heavenly character is that she is different from the rest of mankind; similarity is a mark of her fall.
The sons of God and the sons of men are morally and spiritually separated, and between them there is a great gulf fixed.
When religious persons try to bridge that gulf by compromise they violate the very principles of the kingdom of God.
verse
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
— John 15:19
thought
How much are we hated by the world not because of personal peculiarities or hypocrisy but because of likeness to Christ? The world hated Christ. What is its attitude to us?
prayer
Lord, in seeking to love the people of the world may I clearly reject the world's values and practices. I am Yours not theirs.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It was a saying of George Mueller that faith grows with use.
If we would have great faith we must begin to use the little faith we already have. Put it to work by reverent and faithful praying, and it will grow and become stronger day by day.
Dare today to trust God for something small and ordinary and next week or next year you may be able to trust Him for answers bordering on the miraculous.
Everyone has some faith, said Mueller; the difference among us is one of degree only, and the man of small faith may be simply the one who has not dared to exercise the little faith he has.
According to the Bible, we have because we ask, or we have not because we ask not.
It does not take much wisdom to discover our next move.
Is it not to pray, and pray again and again till the answer comes?
God waits to be invited to display His power in behalf of His people.
The world situation is such that nothing less than God can straighten it out.
Let us not fail the world and disappoint God by failing to pray.
verse
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
— Colossians 4:2
thought
Said Wesley Deuwel: "Prayer is not limited to the humanly possible. Prayer is a work of faith. The purpose of prevailing prayer is to bring to pass things that are divinely possible and that are in God's will. . . . He has chosen to make us His co-labore
prayer
Father, what unbelievable resources You have given me ? prayer, believing prayer. I can touch the world through prayer. May I grow in faith as I believingly pray.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/