The Pursuit of God by
A.W. Tozer
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
This is an excellent devotional book. Many quotes from A.W. Tozer's other books and many quotes from other people. Here is a quote from the last chapter by Tozer, "It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is
why he does it." I highly recommend this book!
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Here are some great quotes from the book:
God is not satisfied until
there exists between Him and His people a relaxed informality that requires no
artificial stimulation. The true friend of God may sit in His presence for long
periods in silence. Complete trust needs no words of assurance. p. 10
Make your heart a vacuum and
the Spirit will rush in to fill it. p. 12
God impoverishes only to make
rich, becoming in secret Himself the substitute for all that He takes away from
the soul. ~Jeanna Guyan p. 16
Idolatry is not only the
adoration of images . . . but also trust in one's own righteousness, works and
merits, and putting confidence in riches and power. ~Martin Luther p. 20
Hold loosely all that is not
eternal. ~Agnes Maude Royden p. 21
Every advance that we make for
God and for His cause must be made at our inconvenience. If it does not
inconvenience us at all, there is no cross in it! If we have been able to
reduce spirituality to a smooth pattern and it costs us nothing - no
disturbance, no bother and no element of sacrifice in it - we are not getting
anywhere with God. p. 23
He [Abraham] had
everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There
is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of
renunciation The books on systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will
understand. pp. 30-31
Thou hast formed us for
Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.
~Augustine p. 39
A man's spiritual health is
exactly proportional to his love for God. ~C. S. Lewis p. 53
God works powerfully, but for
the most part gently and gradually. ~John Newton p. 58
God is too wise not to know
all about us, and what is really best for us. He is too good not to desire our
highest good. If what He has appointed for us does not seem to us the best, or
even to be good, we need to remember that He sees further that we do, and that
we shall understand Him in time when His plans have unfolded themselves.
~Henry Parry Liddon p. 60
Christian faith is a grand
cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory,
nor can imagine any. But standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony
of unspeakable splendors. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne p. 70
Every man will have to decide
for himself whether or not he can afford the terrible luxury of unbelief. p. 71
Why doesn't the sky fall down?
Why is it that stars and planets do not go tearing apart and ripping off into
chaos? Because there is a Presence that makes all things consist - and it is
the Presence of the One who upholdeth all things by the Word of His power. This
is basically a spiritual explanation, for this universe can only be explained
by spiritual and eternal laws. p. 74
It takes real faith to begin
to live the life of heaven while still upon the earth, for this requires that
we rise above the law of moral gravitation and bring to our everyday living the
high wisdom of God. And since this wisdom is contrary to that of the world,
conflict is bound to result. This, however, is a small price to pay for the inestimable
privilege of following Christ. p. 80
A thousand voices clamor for
our attention, and a thousand causes vie for our support. But until we have
learned to be satisfied with fellowship with God, until He is our rock and our
fortress, we will be restless with our place in the world. p. 81
To be “spiritually minded”
simply means to look at earth from heaven’s point of view. The spiritually
minded believer makes his decisions on the basis of eternal values and not the
passing fads of society. ~Warren Wiersbe p. 82
How far away is heaven? It is
not so far as some imagine. It wasn’t very far away from Daniel. It was not so
far off that Elijah’s prayer and those of others could not be heard there. Men
full of the Spirit can look right in to heaven. ~Dwight L. Moody p. 84
Aim at heaven and you get
earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. ~C. S, Lewis p. 85
A philosopher once asked
“Where is God?” The Christian answered, “Let me first ask you – where is He
not?” p. 92
We do not need to go
"somewhere" to find God, any more than the fish needs to soar to find
the ocean or the eagle to plunge to find the air. ~Rufus Jones p. 93
God does not communicate
things to us so much as He just is Himself in us. We are the vessels, the
containers, so that the first work after the new birth is to cultivate the
habit of receptivity. ~Norman Grubb p.
99
My unassisted heart is
barren clay,
That of its native self
can nothing feed:
Of good and pious works
Thou are the seed,
That quickens only where
Thou sayest it may:
Unless Thou show to us
Thine own true way
No man can find it:
Father! Thou must lead. ~Michelangelo p.
99
~True Spiritually~
First is the desire to be
holy rather than happy.
A man may be considered
spiritual when he wants to see the honor of God advanced through his life.
The spiritual man wants
to carry his cross.
Again a Christian is
spiritual when he sees everything from God's viewpoint.
Another desire of the
spiritual man is to die right rather than to live wrong.
The desire to see others
advance at his expense is another mark of the spiritual man.
The spiritual man
habitually makes eternity-judgments instead of time-judgments. p. 102
Our nature hungers for
God even when it broke with Him long ago, perhaps the more intensely the longer
ago it was. It experiences a sort of famine. But the devil rides it and spurs
it on, to distract it from its own need. He changes its hunger into haste. That
is why people today are in such a hurry. Their speed is to distract their
hunger. ~Louis Evely p. 104
God designed the human
machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to
burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.
~C.S. Lewis p. 106
No one questions the need
of times of formal address to God, but few admit in any practical way the need
of quiet waiting upon God, gazing into His face, feeling for His hand,
listening for His voice. God has special confidences for each soul. Indeed, it
would seem as though the deepest truths come only in moments of profound
devotional silence and contemplation. ~Charles H. Brent p. 107
There is hardly ever a
complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us well nigh incessantly.
Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear
these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not always
hear because of the noise, hurry, and distraction which life causes as it
rushes on. ~Frederick W. Faber p. 115
When conscience begins to
be awakened by God, we either become subtle hypocrites or saints, that is,
either we let God's law working through conscience bring us to the place where
we can be put right, or we begin to hoodwink ourselves, to affect a religious
pose, not before other people, but before ourselves, in order to appease
conscience - anything to be kept out of the real presence of God because
wherever He comes, He disturbs. ~Oswald Chambers p. 116
Does not all nature
around me praise God? If I were silent, I should be an exception to the
universe. Does not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march
of the God of armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their
summits wave in adoration? Does not the lightning write His name in letters of
fire? Has not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I, silent be? ~
Charles H. Spurgeon p. 118
It is in lonely solitude
that God delivers His best thoughts, and the mind needs to be still and quiet
to receive them. ~Charles R. Swindoll p.
122
Nobody ever outgrows
Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years. ~Charles H.
Spurgeon p. 126
I prayed for faith and
thought that some day faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But
faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans,
"Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." I had up to
this time closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began
to study and faith has been growing ever since. ~Dwight L. Moody p. 128
Faith wears everyday
clothes and proves herself in life's ordinary situations. ~Bertha Munro p. 129
I am so made that worry
and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life: faith is oil. ~ E. Stanley
Jones p. 130
True faith is never found
alone; it is always accompanied by expectation. The man who believes the
promises of God expects to see them fulfilled. Where there is no expectation
there is no faith. p. 131
Faith reposes on the
character of God and if we believe that God is perfect we must conclude that
His ways are perfect also. p. 132
To fall in love with God
is the greatest of all romances! To seek Him is the greatest of all
achievements! To find Him is the greatest human achievement! ~Raphael
Simon p. 142
Has it ever occurred to
you that 100 pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each
other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another
standard to which one must individually bow. So 100 worshipers meeting
together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other
than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and
turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion
is perfected when private religion is purified. p. 148
God fully expects the
church of Jesus Christ to prove itself a miraculous group in the very midst of
a hostile world. Christians of necessity must be in contact with the world but
in being and spirit ought to be separated from the world - and as such, we
should be the most amazing people in the world. p. 150
We find the Bible
difficult because we try to read it as we would read any other book, and it is
not the same as any other book. p. 152
Fellowship with God leads
straight to obedience and good works. That is the divine order and it can never
be reversed. p. 152
No one can long worship
God in spirit and in truth before the obligation to holy service becomes too
strong to resist. p. 152
Worship is the highest
and noblest act that any person can do. When men worship, God is satisfied! And
when you worship, you are fulfilled! ~Raymond C. Ortlund p. 156
The well-defined
spiritual life is not only the highest life, but it is also the most easily
lived. The whole cross is more easily carried than the half. It is the man who
tries to make the best of both worlds who makes nothing of either. And he who
seeks to serve two masters misses the benediction of both. Both he who has
taken his stand, who has drawn a boundary-line sharp and deep about his
religious life, who has marked off all beyond as forever forbidden ground to
him, finds the yoke easy and the burden light. For this forbidden environment
comes to be as if it were not . . . And the balm of death numbing his lower
nature releases him for the scarce disturbed communion of a higher life. So
even here to die is gain. ~Henry Drummond p.
164
It's ludicrous for any
Christian to believe that he or she is the worthy object of public worship; it
would be like the donkey carrying Jesus into Jerusalem believing the crowds
were cheering and laying down their garments for him. ~Charles Colson p. 167
The humble person has
changed humiliation into humility. ~Bernard of Clairvaux p. 180
Dear Christ, make one
that which we are and that which we appear to be. ~Calvin Miller p. 180
I used to think that
God's gifts were on shelves one above another and that the taller we grew in
Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God's
gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it is not a question of
growing taller but of stooping lower. ~F. B. Meyer p. 183
What you possess in the
world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else, but
what you are will be yours forever. ~Harry Van Dyke p. 183
Lord, make me childlike.
Deliver me from the urge to complete with another for place or prestige or
position. I would be simple and artless as a little child. Deliver me from pose
and pretense. Forgive me for thinking of myself. Help me to forget myself and
find my true peace in beholding Thee. That Thou may answer this prayer I humble
myself before Thee. Lay upon me Thy easy yoke of self-forgetfulness that
through it I may find rest. Amen. p. 184
Teach me, my God and
King,
In all things Thee to
see;
And what I do in
anything,
To do it as for Thee!
~George Herbert p. 185
Monday through Friday
employment is pure; it's sacred - just as sacred as your Sunday activities.
~Charles Swindoll p. 187
Do little things as if
they were great because of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in
you; and do great things as if they were little and easy because of His
omnipotence. ~Blaise Pascal pp
187-188.
Who is the greatest saint
in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives
most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice; but it is
he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who
receives everything as an instance of God's goodness, and has a heart always
ready to praise God for it. ~William Law p.
188
There is no work better
than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or
an apostle, all is one; to wash dishes and to preach is all one to please God.
~William Tyndale p. 197
Lord, turn the routines
of work into celebrations of love. ~unknown p. 198
We can do little things
for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan, for love of Him; and that
done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before
Him who has given me grace to work; afterward I rise happier than a king.
~Brother Lawrence p. 199
Christianity is neither
contemplation nor action. It is participation. Contemplation is looking at God
as if He were an object. But if you participate in God in the sense that you
let yourself be penetrated by Him, you will go to the cross like Him, you will
go to work like Him, you will clean shoes, do the washing up and the cooking,
all like Him. You cannot do otherwise because you will have become part of Him.
You will do what He loves to do. ~Louis Evely p. 202
Where is the church at
11:25 on Monday morning? The church then is in the dentist's office, in the
automobile sales room and repair shop, and out in the truck. It is in the
hosspital, in the classroom, and in the home. It is in the offices, insurance,
law, real estate, whatever it is. That is where the church is, wherever God's
people are. They are doing what they ought to be doing. They are honoring God,
not just while they worship in a building but out there. ~Arthur H.
DeKruyter p. 203
It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or
secular, it is why he does it. p. 204
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