I was given this book back in 2001 yet for some reason never read it. I just found it last week and started reading it and LOVE it! Here is what the back recap has to say:
“What is the nature of God? How can we recapture a real sense of God’s majesty and truly live in the Spirit? This beloved book, a modern classic of Christian testimony and devotion, addresses these and other vital questions, showing us how we can rejuvenate our prayer life, meditate more reverently, understand God more deeply, and experience God’s presence in our daily lives.”
“God Incomprehensible” is the title of the chapter I’m on and it has really got me thinking. The paragraph that I’ve quite enjoyed says this:
“When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not-God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.”
Then he goes on to quote from a Spanish saint, “Let the Christian soul love God as He is in Himself, and not as her imagination says He is, and pictures Him.”
Tozer continues to explain that “while the name of God is secret and His essential nature incomprehensible, He in condescending love has by revelation declared certain things to be true of Himself. These we call His attributes.”
The rest of the book goes through these attributes of God chapter by chapter: the Trinity, His Self-existence, His Self-sufficiency, His Eternity, Wisdom, Faithfulness, goodness, justice, mercy, grace love, holiness, sovereignty, etc.
I’m looking forward to reading more and grasping a better understanding of who my God is because I know that when I think rightly of God I will be able to more perfectly love and worship Him. If I don’t have a proper concept and view of God then I will fail to praise Him as He truly should be worshiped. I want to love Him and honor Him to the best of my ability and therefore I am excited to learn more about His greatness and His attributes to help me do so.
Tozer’s prayer at the beginning of the book puts this concept into perfect words:
“O Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise but the God of the prophets and apostles; and better than all, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I express Thee unblamed?
They that know Thee not may call upon Thee as other than Thou art, and so worship not Thee but a creature of their own fancy; therefore enlighten our minds that we may know Thee as Thou art, so that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
1 comment:
He also wrote The Attributes of God which was so good! It's broken up into two books. It sounds extremely similar to this one. Isn't his writing great? I always feel like he's talking to me personally. He has a lot of voice in his writing I think.
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