The real fire to know God

‘This book is a modest attempt to aid God’s hungry children so to find Him. Nothing here is new except in the sense that it is a discovery which my own heart has made of spiritual realities most delightful and wonderful to me. Others before me have gone much farther into these holy mysteries than I have done, but if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.” — A.W. Tozer

This is the last part of the preface in Tozer’s book The Pursuit of God. It echoes my desire for my own book and the ones that follow.

So much of what Tozer identified in his freshly post-war days has declined so much more.

Biblical literacy is at an all-time low. Even if there was still a priority on expository preaching straight from the Word, people largely wouldn’t understand what they’re hearing.

Of course, hearing the Word creates a hunger to hear more of it and get understanding.

But in our dopamine-soaked world, daily study of the Bible is just not a priority.

The only way to change that is for those of us who already desire to know God more to model it and show others how it’s done. Making disciples of those in our purview, starting with the little ones at home.

Let them see you reading your Bible, mom, dad, grandma or grandpa.

That’s the spark that started my own book, and my lifelong desire to know God through His word, even if I haven’t always had the perfect daily ritual for it.

If those of us who know the life-saving power of His word will commit to it, it will change us.

Others will notice that change and want to know what we have that they don’t. They will ask, I promise you.

The spirit inside us that is our true God-breathed human essence has a longing only He can meet. There are no physical or intellectual substitutes.

You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to know Him. You just need to read His words.

He will do the rest.

— LRM