"Be" First, Then "Do"

"Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matthew 7:17)

While good deeds cannot make a man good, it is likewise true that everything a good man does is good because he is a good man. Holy deeds are holy not because they are one kind of deed instead of another, but because a holy man performs them.

Every person should see to it that he is fully cleansed from all sin, entirely surrendered to the whole will of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he will not be known as what he "does", but as what he "is." He will be a man of God first and anything else second: a man of God who paints or mines coal or farms or preaches ... but always a man of God. That and not the kind of work he does will determine the quality of his deeds.

We need to remember that this world is not so much a place for doing things as for making character. Right in the midst of what some people call drudgery is the very best place to get the transformed, transfigured life.

God weigheth more with how much love a man worketh, than how much he doeth. He doeth much that loveth much. He doeth much that doeth a thing well.

~A. W. Tozer~

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God's Way is Best

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:6)

The Christian who has in principle accepted God's truth as his standard of conduct and has submitted himself to Christ as his Lord, may yet be tempted to lay his own plans and even fight for them when they are challenged by the Word of God or the inner voice of the Spirit.

We humans are a calculating, planning race, and we like to say, "Tomorrow I will ..." But our Heavenly Father knows us too well to trust our way to our own planning, so He very often submits His own plans to us and requires that we accept them.

Right there a controversy is sometimes stirred up between the soul and God. But we had better not insist on our own way. It will always be bad for us in the long run. God's way is best.

Instead of being supremely attached to God and the good of his kingdom, men are by nature "lovers of their own selves." Hence there is a controversy between man and His Maker. God requires men to regard His glory as the great object of their affections, and the ultimate end of their conduct.

~A. W. Tozer~