God Is Not Dependent on Our Human Success

 

                                            By A. W. Tozer

 

             Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand

              of God,  that he may exalt you in due time.  1 Peter 5:6

 

                  Why is it that the professed Christian church seems to

              have learned so little from our Lord's plain teaching and

              example concerning human failure and success?

 

                  We are still seeing as men see and  judging after the

              manner of man's judgment.  How  much  eager beaver

              religious work is done out of a  carnal  desire to make

              good?

 

                  How many hours of prayer are wasted beseeching

              God to bless projects that are geared to the glorification

              of  little  men?   How much  sacred  money  is  poured

              out upon men who,  in spite of their  tear-in-the-voice

              appeals, nevertheless seek only to make a fair show in

              the flesh?

 

                  The true Christian should turn away from all this. No

              man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail. No

              man is morally worthy of success in religious activities

              until he is willing that the honor of succeeding should go

              to another if God so wills.

 

                  God may allow His servant to succeed when He has

              disciplined him to a point where he does not need to

              succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success

              and cast down by failure is still a carnal man.

 

                  God will allow His servant to succeed when he has

              learned that success does not make him dearer to God or

              more valuable in the total scheme of things.

 

                Our great honor lies in being just what Jesus was and

              is. To be accepted by those who accept Him, rejected by

              all who reject Him, loved by those who love Him. What

              greater glory could come to any man? 

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              Yours in Christ,

              Paul N. F.