A.W. Tozer and Our View of God

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us….Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like." - A.W. Tozer

I came across this Tozer quote in the first chapter of Francis Chan's Crazy Love (the book my small group will be chewing on the next few months). If you're not familiar with Tozer, he was a pastor in the Christian Missionary Alliance church and well-known for his two devotional classics, The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. I can remember reading through Pursuit in college and highlighting a ton of things. It had an impact on me.

I haven't really read any Tozer since my college days - but stumbling upon this quote made me stop and think: How well can I love God (with all our heart, soul, mind, strength) if my knowledge of Him is shallow, stale, secondary?

How well can we love someone if we really don't know them - know what they're like, what their heart beats for, what they're for and what they're against?

I think about my wife Beth. I can tell you facts about her - where and when she was born, the color of her eyes, what she studied in college, etc. But I can also tell you what she is passionate about, what inspires her, what gets her upset, what she dreams of doing. That kind of knowledge can't be gleaned by just reading a simple bio sheet or resume. It comes through the day-in, day-out process of “doing life” together as husband and wife.

God is God, so any analogy we make is by definition qualified and limited. However, just as knowing our spouse goes beyond reading some facts about them, so knowing God does as well. I love my wife for who she is, but the depth of my love for her grows as we walk through life together.

I think this is how it works in our relationship with God. After crossing the line of faith we discover more and more about God’s character, ways, work in the pages of Scripture. Any of our thoughts about God must be measured against what is revealed in the Bible.

But what we find in Scripture is meant to deepen our love, trust and commitment to the God who saved us. We know Him as we pray, as we worship in song, as we serve. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we walk in increasing obedience and faithfulness. We ask Him for forgiveness when we have wandered from His ways.

What we conceive God to be like comes from our time in the Word, but it also comes from living out our relationship with Him on a daily basis. The more we know God, the more our affection for Him should grow. Pure worship – offered up daily (Rom. 12:1) as well as on Sundays – is the overflow of a genuine relationship with the triune God.