The Dangers of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy

by A.W. Tozer

I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with thy power by

The Church Fathers did not look back and try to live in the past. The Church Fathers looked back to find their compass so they could go forward in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

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.

First, any false teaching must begin with a wrong concept of God. No one who holds a right concept of God can go far wrong in anything else. All the mistakes that have been made, all the great fundamental errors, have rested on a wrong concept of God.

Any wrong idea of God is bound to give us a wrong idea of ourselves. We can know ourselves only as we know God. If our theology is false, our anthropology must be false. If we are wrong about God, we will never know who, what or why we are where we are.

If I have a dangerous concept of sin, I have a degraded concept of Christ.

Do Not Trust a Discouraged Heart

Superstition is, in some measure, a projection of our own nasty little personalities into heaven and making God in our own image;

If God were seen as big enough, there would be a wonderful liberty in the Church.

When a man rises and says, “I believe the Bible” and then ignores the teachings of the Bible on his own pet subjects, he is rejecting the Word more insidiously than outright disbelief.

The world makes us ashamed to wear a suit if it is not the latest model; ashamed to drive a car that is not the latest; ashamed to live in a house that is not the latest grotesque monstrosity. It makes us ashamed to be a little behind the times. But a man who is big enough to know that he is above all times is big enough to dare to live boldly where he pleases—in style or out of style.

Remember, you have not done anything about truth until you have acted on it. If it is a statement, it is to be believed. If it is a command, it is to be obeyed. If you have not believed or obeyed, you have not done anything, and you have postponed your Christian life.

But conditioning the mind creates a slave who doesn’t know it.

Not long after birth, the child begins to ask questions, but the animal never does.

I want to emphasize and lay upon your conscience to practice anticipatory prayer, because battles are lost before they are fought.

You can always put a blanket anticipation down by realizing that the devil is always after you; and so by prayer and watching and waiting on God, you can be ready for his coming when he does come. You can win—not the day he arrives, but the day before he arrives. Not the noon he gets to you, but the morning before the noon.

Lady Julian of Norwich (ca. 1342–ca. 1416) understood this about as well as anybody I have read. She wrote, “O God, please give me three wounds; the wound of contrition and the wound of compassion and the wound of longing after God.” Then she added this little postscript, which I think is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read: “This I ask without condition, Father; do what I ask and then send me the bill. Anything that it costs will be all right with me.”