“Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. The man who has struggled to purify himself and had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect one. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him..For faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.”
These words of A.W. Tozer are shared in his work The Pursuit of God. I can certainly testify to their truth.
I cannot even count the number of recent conversations that I have had about the bondage of sin. It makes us slaves and leaves us in despair. Of it, no one is immune. And yet, this does not give us any right to attitudes of spiritual fatalism. On the contrary, it lays the groundwork for the commands of God: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27, Mark 12:30, Deuteronomy 6:5). No, this isn’t the command of a selfish God, this is a command from a God of love who knows that our love for him will keep us farther from sin. How good of him. Our gaze is to be on God, on the father, that we might not wallow in despair and self-guilt, but that we would get a glimpse of the one who is greater than our heart, and greater than all troubles.
Even Jesus did this while he was here on earth. Countless times he withdrew and prayed and spent time with his Father. In John 5:19-20 Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.”
Jesus had a kind of faith that looked always upon his Father’s face. Where are you looking?
Let us seek this God who promises not to withhold himself from us. His promises are true, and provide every means for us to have hope..but that’s a whole other story.
“May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe.
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.”
Friends, may this be your prayer, our prayer.
Blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment