The Dangers of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy

by A.W. Tozer

God has called us in to a deep walk with Him, but many of us are just touching the surface.

The Bible always sends us out into the world, but never to compromise with the world; and never to walk in the way of the world, but only to save as many as we can.

To negotiate with the world is to forfeit the sense of God’s presence.

“a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5).

The Church Fathers came into the presence of God with a sense of overwhelming reverence, which captivated them and brought them before God in holy silence. What has happened to reverence today? Where are those who get caught up in the spirit of reverence before their God? Where are those who have experienced the holy hush in the presence of God?

The Church Fathers looked back to find their compass so they could go forward in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

We do not look back in order to go back. Rather, we look back so that we can make sure we are going forward in the right direction.

It is amazing that in a generation of Christians with more modern translations of the Scriptures than all the other generations put together, it is just about the weakest group of Christians we have ever seen.

It is not by reading the Scriptures in the original languages or in some contemporary version that makes us better Christians. Rather, it is getting on our knees with the Scriptures spread before us, and allowing the Spirit of God to break our hearts. Then, when we have been thoroughly broken before God Almighty, we get up off our knees, go out into the world and proclaim the glorious message of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble”

The Church ran quite efficiently by all Christians working together, each of them knowing where they belonged, and doing their part.

Apostasy starts when certain men creep in unawares and replace the Holy Spirit as the guiding force of the Christian movement. The Church was never designed to be piloted by men; rather, the Holy Spirit birthed the Church on the day of Pentecost as a vehicle through which He could do His work in each generation.

Let us get back to the kind of Christianity that was birthed on the day of Pentecost and “be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).

Must Jesus bear the cross alone And all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for everyone And there’s a cross for me. How happy are the saints above Who once went sorrowing here! But now they taste unmingled love And joy without a tear. The consecrated cross I’ll bear Till death shall set me free And then go home my crown to wear For there’s a crown for me. Upon the crystal pavement down At Jesus’ pierced feet Joyful I’ll cast my golden crown And His dear Name repeat. O precious cross! O glorious crown! O resurrection day! When Christ the Lord from Heav’n comes down And bears my soul away.

Caught up in the presence of God, Moses had no other thought but God.

Boredom with religion is conceivable, but being bored with God is not. Those who have encountered God and His mighty, awesome presence could never come to the point of boredom.

The Church naïvely imitates what it sees in the world without any regard to consequence.

Importing the culture around us instead of adoring the nature and character of Christ within us is the sad reality of today’s Christian.

Instead of writing great literature that honors God, the Church and the things of heaven, we are duplicating the dreary, morally questionable literature of the world.

True Christianity is a mystery, a wonder, something alien and transcendent in this world. The Christianity of the New Testament is incomprehensible to the world.

The taste of the Church should be infinitely higher and greater than the world’s.

What satisfies the Church should in no way satisfy the world. The true Christian has an insatiable appetite for Christ and the things of Christ, while the world has no such appetite.

What this generation of Christians needs is not religious entertainment to satisfy carnal appetites; rather, it needs some biblically based literature that challenges and stirs the soul to deeper appreciation of God and Christ and the whole plan of salvation.

If we feed the spiritual, our appetite for the things of God will grow.

To know of these men and women and the work they did for Christ, and then turn around and go after some converted celebrity to follow, is almost as close to blasphemy as we can possibly get.

“Apart from Him, let nothing dazzle you.”

The Early Church was in wonderment at Christ. He dazzled them and stirred within such feelings of amazement that they could never get over Christ. All they talked about was Christ. All they thought about, from morning to night, was Christ. Christ was their only reason for living, and they were more than willing to die for Him.

No cheap thrill can ever replace the ecstatic joy of knowing Jesus Christ.

The successful Christian is one who realizes he is but a pilgrim in this world looking for a city whose builder and foundation is God (see Heb. 11:10; 13:14).

What we must remember is that only he who takes orders from Jesus Christ belongs to Him. The evangelical church is in the process of compromising this very thing and ignoring “thus saith the Lord.” Yes, we want any benefits that Christ may confer upon us. We want His help, protection and guidance. We even get misty-eyed over His birth, life, death, teaching and example. The problem comes when we will not take orders from Him. Christ cannot save the one He cannot control. To claim to be saved while ignoring His commandments is to live in utter delusion.

Would you live for Jesus, and be always pure and good? Would you walk with Him within the narrow road? Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load? Let Him have His way with thee. Would you have Him make you free, and follow at His call? Would you know the peace that comes by giving all? Would you have Him save you, so that you can never fall? Let Him have His way with thee. Would you in His kingdom find a place of constant rest? Would you prove Him true in providential test? Would you in His service labor always at your best? Let Him have His way with thee. His power can make you what you ought to be; His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free; His love can fill your soul, and you will see ’Twas best for Him to have His way with thee.

When truth has been revealed in the Word of God, our business is to find out what that truth is, and in all of our teaching conform to that truth.

Nonconformity to the truth brings disaster.

Of all foundations, God is the most important, because God is God, and He made the heavens and the earth and all the things therein.

God is what He is, and we had better learn what God is and then conform our teachings to that truth. If we take away any of the attributes of God, we weaken our concept of God.

Our God is a God of justice, grace, righteousness and mercy. While He is a God of mathematical exactness, He is also a God who could take babies in His arms and pat their heads and smile. He is a God who forgives. So we had better make the study of His Word the business of our lives to find out what He is, and then we must conform our views to His.

Believe about yourself what God says about you. Believe you are as bad as God says you are, and believe you are as far from Him as God says you are. Then believe in Christ and that you can come as near to Him as He says you can, and accept what He says about you as being true.

Sin cannot be understood until we believe in God and what He has said about us.

Truth concerning God means that we must accept God’s sovereignty, His holiness, His justice, His grace, His love and all that the Bible says about God.

We must contend but not be contentious. We must preserve truth but injure no man. We must destroy error without harming people.

1. Build up—“building up yourselves on your most holy faith . . .” (v. 20).

Build up yourselves on your most holy faith.

2. Pray—“praying in the Holy Ghost” (v. 20).

Five minutes of prayer in the Holy Spirit will be worth more than one year of hit-and-miss praying if it is not in the Holy Spirit.

3. Love—“keep yourselves in the love of God . . .” (v. 21).

let us be charitable and loving toward all while we keep ourselves in the love of God.

4. Look—“looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (v. 21).

Let us look for Jesus Christ’s coming—for the mercy of the Lord Jesus...

We are charged to win others; we should do everything in our power to win others to Christ, saving them with fear, pulling them out of the fire.

There is a balm for every pain, A medicine for all sorrow; The eye turned backward to the Cross, And forward to the morrow. The morrow of the glory and the psalm, When He shall come; The morrow of the harping and the palm, The welcome home. Meantime in His beloved hands our ways, And on His Heart the wandering heart at rest; And comfort for the weary one who lays His head upon His Breast.