Knowing The God We Serve

Another book that is out on public domain is A. W. Tozer’s Knowledge Of The Holy. In it we get a very good idea of the God we are supposed to be worshiping, the God we just surrendered ourselves to. I will try to sum up Tozer’s thoughts on this subject.

The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives we must begin to think of God more nearly as He really is. Let us be encouraged to begin the practice of reverent meditation on the being of our God.

A right concept of God is basic… to practical Christian living. The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for these [any temporal problems] have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long. But one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him: his obligation to God.

No matter how we try to perceive God, He is still God and we are not. We must forever remember the original — and still primary — sin was to try to become like God in terms of knowledge and understanding. We are to get to know God, but we will never fully know [everything there is to know] about Him. We are to take on His character, but we cannot approach His majesty. This is both exciting and frustrating. But the promise remains that one day we will be like Him and see Him as He is.

The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which they can never know. To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries — this requires a great deal of humility.

We are the handiwork of God; all our problems and their solutions are theological. Some knowledge of what kind of God it is that operates the universe is indispensable to a sound philosophy of life and a sane outlook on the world.