WE SETTLE FOR WORDS: DEEDS ARE TOO COSTLY

             By A. W. Tozer
 

                My little children, let us not love in word,   neither in
             tongue: but in deed and in truth.       -  -  1 John 3:18

                 The practice of substituting words for deeds is not
             something new, for the Apostle John saw it in his day
             and warned against it.

                 James also had something to say about the vice of
             words without deeds: "If a brother or sister be naked,
             and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto
             them. Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; not-
             withstanding ye give them not those things which are
             needful to the body; what doth it profit?"

                 We settle for words in religion because deeds are too
             costly.  It is easier to pray,  "Lord, help me to carry my
             cross daily" -- than to pick up the cross and carry it.  But
             since the mere request for help to do something we do
             not actually intend to do has a certain degree of religious
             comfort, we are content with repetition of the words.

                 What then? Shall we take a vow of silence?  Shall we
             cease to pray and sing and write and witness until we
             catch up on our deeds?

                 I say no, that would not help. While we have breath we
             must speak to men about God and to God about men.

                To escape this snare of words without deeds, let us say
            nothing we do not mean.  Break the habit of conventional
             religious chatter.   Speak only as we are ready to take
             the consequences.   Believe God's promises and obey
             God's commandments.  Practice the truth so that we
             may with propriety speak the truth.   Deeds give body to
             words.  As we do acts of power, our words will take on
             authority and a new sense of reality will fill our hearts!
                           -------------------------------------------------------
             Yours in Christ,
             Paul N. F.