A.W. Tozer - Delighting in God

Delighting in the God We Worship

I t is quite hard to think of A.W. Tozer without thinking about the attributes of God. One of his books, which has become a devotional classic, is The Knowledge of the Holy . This was the last book he wrote and represents the culmination of years of study and prayer and preaching. Personally, I read this book at least once a year.

Once in a sermon given in Chicago, Dr. Tozer made a rather personal request of his congregation. It was something he rarely did, but it was interesting to hear him make such a personal appeal.

I want you to pray about something for me. I wish you would pray that God would help me, and let me live long enough, to write a book on the attributes of God devotionally considered. I have that in my mind and I want to do it, but I am very busy with all the other things I am doing. Pray for me that the Lord will find His way with me. I would like to do this and leave to this generation an elevated concept of the great God Almighty in His three persons. When I die, I would like the world not to say, Wasnt Tozer smart, wasnt he eloquent, wasnt he witty? Rather, I would like them to say, We praise Thee, O God. We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. Let us all magnify the Father everlasting; let all the angels cry aloud, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory! It is this that I want to do. I want to leave behind a flavor of God so that the triune God gets all the credit.

I believe this prayer has been answered far beyond his humble expectations. The Knowledge of the Holy has blessed many people since its publication.

The great passion of Tozers heart and ministry was God. He wanted to stir people up, and consequently, people misunderstood him. He knew, of course, he could not get everybody on board, but he was looking for that remnant that would have a passion for God to carry on the ministry God had entrusted to him. He did not preach or write for everybody, but, in particular, those who had a heart for God.

In this book, which is based upon sermons Dr. Tozer preached in a variety of places, we see the burden of his heart. Most of the sermons associated with this book were preached after the publication of The Knowledge of the Holy . Even though he wrote the book, he could never exhaust the theme of that book. The last years of his life were committed to preaching about God. Sometimes a Bible conference would invite him to preach on a specific topic, and frequently he would accommodate them, but his passion was preaching about God.

The interesting thing in this study is the fact that what we think about God, according to Dr. Tozer, infiltrates every aspect of our lives. You can tell a persons future, he often said, if you understand their perception of God. That was the key. What a person thought about God was the most important thing in Tozers thinking.

I think that applied to Tozer himself. To really understand his work and ministry, you need to understand his perception of Godwhat he thought about Godwho God was, as far as he was concerned. Tozer was not interested in the passing trends infiltrating the church in his day. He was concerned about that because, as we see in this book, these trends had a negative effect upon the church, from his perspective, and were responsible for some of the losses he saw in the church.

Not everyone appreciated Dr. Tozer or his teaching, and he understood that. In this book is a reference to a letter written by a seminary professor who quite adamantly disagreed with Dr. Tozer on the matter of the Holy Spirit. Rarely did he ever respond to criticism. I do not know if he simply did not have the time, or if he just did not have the heart to do it. But some were critical of Dr. Tozer simply because they did not understand his perception of God.

Even in his day, Tozer complained about the mediocrity of the Christian church. He complained about how worship had fallen to such a low, despicable level. I wonder what he would say today? He emphatically believed that our worship of God must be worthy of God. In order to do that, we must know who God really is.

Tozer was not interested in methodology, technology, or anything of that nature. He was not interested in how much you knew about God. That was the beginning platform, of course. What he was interested in was God himself, His nature and character, and how He has revealed himself to us through the Word of God.

The problem with the church scene, as Tozer saw it in his day, was the same problem we are facing today, only we might say it has become worse. Not much has changed since those days, except that the Christian church has slipped further down with each generation.

Tozer did not preach or write to the mediocre. Those who were satisfied with just getting through would not be interested in reading anything Tozer had to say. The heartbeat of Tozer, as well as his preaching and writing, was a passion for God that took over his life. Nothing else mattered. He believed we should rejoice in God each day, but should never settle down and be content with where we are spiritually. Go on unto perfection was his daily motto.

This is not a book you can read and then put on the shelf. I believe what Tozer wants to get across in this book is simply that your passion for God will determine your lifestyle. You cannot say you believe in God and then exhibit behaviors that are in conflict with the holy character and nature of God. Those two do not go together. If there is anything unholy in you, then there is nothing truly holy in you. Christianity is not a religion where you adhere to certain rules, regulations, and rituals. Christianity is a passion for God that can only be satisfied as we come to Jesus Christ.