Many who have grown discontent with the arm of the flesh operating throughout the church- those who have moved out towards ‘Him who suffered outside the camp’ can feel great discouragement and loneliness at times. Although this discouragement and loneliness is usually from God and can often produce maturity in Christ, sometimes it is good to be encouraged that we are not alone. I have found that there are many others world-wide who are walking a similar lonely path. I’m sure that this short, potent word from Tozer will resonate with a number of readers, bringing encouragement to their souls. Some will say “it’s good to know there are others who ache for His Kingdom”.

Bretto

by A.W. Tozer 

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.

The man [or woman] who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else.

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." -Revelation 12:11

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Reformation/ Revival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.