The Humble Man Says: “The Mistakes Are Mine”

By A. W. Tozer

 

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart:

and ye shall find rest unto your souls.                                --  Matthew 11:29

 

A page in church history reveals that the godly Macarius of Optino was once told that

his spiritual counsel had been helpful.

 

"This cannot be," Macarius wrote in reply. "Only the mistakes are mine. All good

advice is the advice of the Spirit of God; His advice that I happen to have heard rightly

and to have passed on without distorting it."

 

There is an excellent lesson here which we must not allow to go unregarded. It is the

sweet humility of the man of God who was enabled to say, "Only the mistakes are mine."

He was fully convinced that his own efforts could result only in mistakes and that any good

that came of his advice must be the work of the Holy Spirit operating within him.

 

Apparently this was more than a sudden impulse of self-depreciation, which the proudest

of men may at times feel; it was rather a settled conviction that gave set and direction to

his entire life. His long and humble ministry which brought spiritual aid to many reveals

this clearly enough.

 

It is our belief that the evangelical movement will continue to drift farther and farther from

the New Testament position unless its leadership passes from the modern religious star

to the self-effacing saint who asks for no praise and seeks no place, happy only when the

glory is attributed to God and himself forgotten! 

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Yours in Christ,

Paul N. F.