| Devotional | POWER OF THE CROSS
Only a person with a perfect knowledge of mankind could have dared to set forth the terms of discipleship that our Lord Jesus Christ expects of His followers. Only the Lord of men could have risked the effect of such rigorous demands: "Let him deny himself!" Can the Lord lay down such severe rules at the door of His kingdom? He can-and He does! ...read |
| Devotional | PRACTICING THE TRUTH
Christians habitually weep and pray over beautiful truth, only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it into practice! Actually, the average church simply does not dare to check its practices against biblical precepts. It tolerates things that are diametrically opposed to the will of God, and if the matter ...read |
| Devotional | Praise Reporters
The irrepressible urge to share spiritual blessings can explain a great many religious phenomena. It even goes so far as to create a kind of vicarious transfer of interest from one person to another, so that the blessed soul would if necessary give up its own blessing that another might receive. Only thus can that prayer of Moses be understood, Oh, ...read |
| Devotional | Prayer and Faith
It is . . . critically important that the Christian take full advantage of every provision God has made to save him from delusion. These are prayer, faith, constant meditation on the Scriptures, obedience, humility, hard, serious thought and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. 1. Prayer is not a sure fire protection against error for the reason th ...read |
| Devotional | PRAYER FOR ANOINTING
It is time, 0 God, for Thee to work, for the enemy has entered into Thy pasture, and the sheep are torn and scattered. False shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Thy flock. Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me, anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Save me f ...read |
| Devotional | Prayer is No Substitute for Obedience
Granted that the man who seeks revival has stopped thinking in plurals and has narrowed his faith down to one single individual, himself, what then? How can he find that after which his soul is yearning? How can he cooperate with his hungers to the end that he may indeed be filled?
He must rid his mind of the false notion that prayer alone will ...read |
| Devotional | PRAYER OF A SERVANT
Lord, I have heard Thy voice and was afraid. Thou hast called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. Thou art about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Lord my Lord, Thou hast stooped to honor me to be Thy servant. No man taketh this honor upon himself save he that is ca ...read |
| Devotional | Prayerful Digestion of God's Word
How then shall unbelief be cured and faith be strengthened? Surely not by straining to believe the Scriptures, as some do. Not by a frantic effort to believe the promises of God. Not by gritting our teeth and determining to exercise faith by an act of the will. All this has been tried--and it never helps. To try thus to superinduce faith is to viol ...read |
| Devotional | PRAYERS: TOO LATE
John, in the sixth of Revelation, describes the most tragic, unavailing prayer meeting in the world's history! Cries and groans, shouts and demands, moans and whisper - all will be heard in that coming Day of the Lord when the forces of judgment are released. Even the mountains and the islands will be removed from their places. But by then, the pr ...read |
| Devotional | Praying That Is Praying
Juliana of Norwich at the beginning of her wonderful Christian life addressed a prayer to her Savior and then added the wise words, "And this I ask without any condition."
It was that last sentence that gave power to the rest of her prayer and brought the answer in mighty poured-out floods as the years went by. God could answer her prayer becau ...read |
| Devotional | Praying Till We PRAY
Dr. Moody Stuart, a great praying man of a past generation, once drew up a set of rules to guide him in his prayers. Among these rules is this one: "Pray till you pray." The difference between praying till you quit and praying till you pray is illustrated by the American evangelist John Wesley Lee. He often likened a eason of prayer to a church ser ...read |
| Devotional | Praying Women
It might be a humbling experience for some of us men to be allowed to see just how much of lasting spiritual value is being done by the women of the churches. As in the days of His flesh, Christ still has devout women who follow Him gladly and minister unto Him. The masculine tendency to discount these ?elect ladies? does not speak too well for the ...read |
| Devotional | PREACH A WHOLE CHRIST
I reject the human insistence among us that Christ may sustain a divided relationship toward us in this life. I am aware that this is now so commonly preached that to oppose it or object to it means that you are sticking your neck out and you had best be prepared for what comes. But, I am forced to ask: how can we insist and teach that our Lord Je ...read |
| Devotional | Preaching the Word
Again, the Christian minister must have a word from God for the teen-aged, the middle-aged and the very aged. He must speak to the scholar as well as to the ignorant; he must bring the living Word to the cultured man and woman and to the vulgarian who reads nothing but the sports page and the comic strip. He must speak to the sad and to the happy, ...read |
| Devotional | Preparing Now for Then
. . . the Lord may soon return. I realize there is a lot that we do not know about prophecy, but most Christians are looking for the second coming of the Lord. They expect Him to come. They do not know when He will come, and the ones who claim they do, do not. Nevertheless, He may come in your lifetime. He said that He would come back in an hour wh ...read |
| Devotional | Pressing On
The rapidity with which improvement is made in the life will depend altogether upon the degree of self-criticism we bring to our prayers and to the school of daily living. Let a man fall under the delusion that he has arrived, and all progress is stopped until he has seen his error and forsaken it. Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all ...read |
| Devotional | Pressing On!
Once while listening to a man reproach, disparage and scold an assembly of Christians with whom he was only slightly acquainted and whose personal lives he had no way of appraising, I asked myself some questions, the answers to which up to this point I have not received. Since they bear directly on the matter here being discussed I want to list the ...read |
| Devotional | Pressing toward the Goal Ahead
We are not called to fellowship with nonexistence. We are called to things that exist in truth, to positive things, and it is as we become occupied with these that health comes to the soul. Spiritual life cannot feed on negatives. The man who is constantly reciting the evils of his unconverted days is looking in the wrong direction. He is like a ma ...read |
| Devotional | Prevailing Prayer
It is written that Christ died for our sins, and again it is written that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9). These two texts are written of the same company of persons, namely Christians. We dare not compel the first text to invalidate the second. Both are true and one completes the other. The m ...read |
| Devotional | Priceless Exchange
A great preacher whom I heard a few years ago said that the word "renew" in Isaiah 40:31 really meant "exchange"; so the text should read, "They that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength." Oddly enough I do not now remember how he developed his sermon or just how he applied the text, but I have been thinking lately that the man h ...read |
A.W. Tozer