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.