Morning and Evening with A.W. Tozer

In the dealings of God with men, hope has held a noble place. The expectation that Messiah would come cheered Israel in her years of victory and kept her from despairing in her periods of captivity and dispersal. Those who feared the Lord have often had rough going.

They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword: They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts...

Let me call it to your attention that the happiness of all moral creatures lies in the giving of obedience to God, the Creator. The psalmist cries out in Psalms 103:20: "Bless the Lord, ye his angels; that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." The angels in heaven find their complete freedom and highest happiness in obeying the commandments of God. They do not find it a tyranny-they find it a...

One thing the young Christian should be taught as quickly as possible after his conversion is that Jesus Christ is all he needs. When he believes effectively on Christ as his Lord and Savior he can humbly declare his independence of everyone and everything outside of Christ. This the New Testament teaches with great emphasis and clarity and with fullness of detail. We need not quote any proof text in support of this statement, but suggest simply that the inquirer read the Scriptures to see...

The Bible tells us that when a person becomes a Christian, it is as though the sun has come up and the day has dawned. Then his experience along the path should be like the glowing light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day! This brings us to a question: if all Christians are alike in standing and state, why did Jesus point out three distinctions in the Christian life-"some thirty, some sixty and some a hundred fold"" If we are all alike and have all "arrived" at the same place...

The temptation to gear our lives to social consequences is frightfully strong in a world like ours, but it must be overcome all the way down the line. The Christian businessman when faced with a moral choice must never ask, "How much will this cost me"? The moment he regards consequences, he dethrones Christ as Lord of his life. His only concern should be with the will of God and the moral quality of the proposed act. To consult anything else is to sin against his own soul.

Again, the...

"Am I faithful in prayer"" Ask yourself that. "Well, I'm busy," you say. Yes, you are busy. So was the Lord Jesus. So was Martin Luther. Luther said, "In the morning I have so much work to do that I am going to have to pray longer today." Are you faithful in prayer, and do you meditate on the Word" How much of Scripture have you read lately" Have you read it wth meditation and tenderness" These are a few questions. You can answer them evasively and the snow lies there. Or you can answer them...

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...

Someone wrote to me recently asking what I meant by a statement which occurs in the booklet Paths to Power, which I wrote some years ago. The passage reads: "No one was ever filled with the Holy Spirit without knowing it. The Holy Spirit always announces Himself to the human consciousness." What bothered my correspondent was the nature of this "announcement." Of what does it consist" How may we recognize it" Is it some kind of physical evidence, or what"

This whole question is worthy...

Only a believing Christian can testify, "I am a sinner-saved by the grace of God!" But that is not the whole story. All that we have is cut of His grace. Jesus Christ, the eternal Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, is the open channel through whom God moves to provide all the benefits He gives, both to saints and to sinners-yes, even to sinners! Even though you may still be unconverted and going your own way, you have received much out of the ocean of His fullness. You have received...

The absence of spiritual devotion today is an omen and a portent. The modern church is all but contemptuous of the sober virtues—meekness, modesty, humility, quietness, obedience, self-effacement, patience. To be accepted now, religion must be in the popular mood. Consequently, much religious activity reeks with pride, display, self-assertion, self-promotion, love of gain and devotion to trivial pleasures.

It behooves us to take all this seriously. Time is running out for all of us....

That we must often receive new truth into minds already cluttered up with old truths, half-truths and scraps of downright error, and fit it into the total in such a way that it will appear right and "feel" right to the heart, makes it extremely difficult for us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The camel may squeeze through the eye of the needle and be well on his way before some of us can rid ourselves of our hindrances and get our minds clear for the free...

A fanatic is somebody seeking desirable ends but ignoring constituted means. Seeking to get out of the religious rut is a desirable end. It is right and it is in the will of God. But trying to do it in a manner that is not according to God"s constituted means is all wrong and gets us nowhere. When they want to get blessed, some people try getting worked up psychologically. There are some who, while they have not studied psychology, are master psychologists. They know how to manipulate...

Consider with me the appealing Old Testament story of the beautiful young woman in the Song of Solomon. Deeply in love with the young shepherd, she is also actively sought out by the king, who demands her favor. She remains loyal to the simple shepherd, who gathers lilies and comes to seek her and calls to her through the lattice. In many ways, this is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus, of His love and care for His Bride, the Church. In the scriptural account, she does turn her loved one...

Rightly understood, faith is not a substitute for moral conduct but a means toward it. The tree does not serve in lieu of fruit but as an agent by which fruit is secured. Fruit, not trees, is the end God has in mind in yonder orchard; so Christlike conduct is the end of Christian faith. To oppose faith to works is to make the fruit the enemy to the tree; yet that is exactly what we have managed to do. And the consequences have been disastrous.

A miscalculation in laying the foundation...