THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE IS ALMOST CROWDED OUT
by A. W. Tozer
“That ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business...that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without...” 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Modern civilization is so complex as to make the
devotional life all but impossible, multiplying distractions and beating
us down by destroying our solitude.
“Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still” is a wise and healing counsel, but how can it be followed in this day of the newspaper, the telephone, the radio and the television? (Note: and now internet and smart phones which were nonexistent in Tozer's day). These modern playthings, like pet tiger cubs, have grown so large and dangerous that they threaten to devour us all. No spot is now safe from the world’s intrusion.
One way the civilized world destroys men is by preventing them from thinking their own thoughts. Our “vastly improved methods of communication” of which the shortsighted boast so loudly now enable a few men in strategic centers to feed into millions of minds alien thought stuff, ready-made and predigested.
The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today. Even the majority of “Christians” are so completely conformed to this present age that they, too, want things the way they are.
However, there are some of God’s children who have had enough. They want to relearn the ways of solitude and simplicity and gain the infinite riches of the interior life. They want to discover the blessedness of what has been called “spiritual aloneness” – a discipline that will go far in making us acquainted with God...”
“Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still” is a wise and healing counsel, but how can it be followed in this day of the newspaper, the telephone, the radio and the television? (Note: and now internet and smart phones which were nonexistent in Tozer's day). These modern playthings, like pet tiger cubs, have grown so large and dangerous that they threaten to devour us all. No spot is now safe from the world’s intrusion.
One way the civilized world destroys men is by preventing them from thinking their own thoughts. Our “vastly improved methods of communication” of which the shortsighted boast so loudly now enable a few men in strategic centers to feed into millions of minds alien thought stuff, ready-made and predigested.
The need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today. Even the majority of “Christians” are so completely conformed to this present age that they, too, want things the way they are.
However, there are some of God’s children who have had enough. They want to relearn the ways of solitude and simplicity and gain the infinite riches of the interior life. They want to discover the blessedness of what has been called “spiritual aloneness” – a discipline that will go far in making us acquainted with God...”
A. W. Tozer, excerpt from his book RENEWED DAY BY DAY, published by
Christian Publications, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, which is composed
of excerpts from his book THE DIVINE CONQUEST, 1976
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CONSIDER:
Moses was sent to the solitude of the desert for 40 years before his service began.
John the Baptist "was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel" (Luke 1:80).
The apostle Paul went to Arabia soon after his conversion (Gal. 1:17).
There was "aloneness," quietness and time for listening to God in these places, that prepared them for future ministry.
"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psa. 46:10).
