CONFIDENCE IN GOD

    By A. W. Tozer

   If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence in
   God                                                                        -  -  1 John 3:21

       This is surely one of the great realizations that can come to us
    in the Christian life --- we can put our complete confidence in the
    God who has revealed Himself to us!

       It was a gracious day in my early Christian experience when I
    realized that it was not in God's character to pounce upon me in
    judgment.  He knows that we are dust and as our God He is loving
    and patient towards us.

       If it were true that the Lord would put the Christian on the shelf
    every time he failed or blundered or did something wrong, I would
    have been a piece of statuary by this time!

       It is surely true that God will bring judgment when judgment is
    necessary, but the Scriptures say that judgment is God's strange
    work.  Where there is a lifetime of rebellion, hardened unbelief
    and love of sin, judgment will come.

       But God watches over us for spiritual growth and maturity,
    trying to teach us the necessity for fully trusting Him and coming
    to the place of complete distrust of ourselves.  We have met God,
    and can now say with Paul,  "That the excellency of the power
    may be of God and not of us."

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    Yours in Christ,
    Paul N. F.