Happy and/Or Holy

"Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself" (Romans 14:11-12)

One may easily deceive himself by cultivating a religious joy without a corresponding righteous life. No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he shall be.

For those who take this whole thing seriously I have a suggestion. Go to God and have an understanding. Tell Him that it is your desire to be holy at any cost and then ask Him never to give you more happiness than holiness. When your holiness becomes tarnished, let your joy become dim. And ask Him to make you holy whether you are happy or no.

Be assured that in the end you will be as happy as you are holy; but for the time being let your whole ambition be to serve God and be Christlike.

The end of the Christian in the exercise of grace is the glory of God, and not merely his own present or future happiness.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Dig Out of the Old Wells

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3)

Friend, we must dig out the old wells! We must recognize our dryness of spirit, our coldness of heart. We must make the decision to renew our desire for God, for the outpouring of His Spirit and for the seasons of rejoicing as we become more like Jesus.

Many a congregation has been renewed and blessed  when believers have been willing to reopen the Bible wells of reconciliation and confession. When Christians are harboring hard feelings against each other, they need to be reconciled. They need to confess and ask forgiveness.

I refer here to actual sins and faults. There are people in continual bondage to mere trifles and inconsequential matters. God has given us the Holy Spirit to be our promoter and our guide. And He has given us good sense as well to go along with our conscience.

We try to substitute praying for obeying; and it simply will not work. Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience.

~A. W. Tozer~