Livng for the Will of God

By A.W. Tozer, Friday, December 17, 2004

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-2 NIV)

The temptation to gear our lives to social consequences is frightfully strong in a world like ours, but it must be overcome all the way down the line. The Christian businessman when faced with a moral choice must never ask, ìHow much will this cost me?î The moment he regards consequences, he dethrones Christ as Lord of his life. His only concern should be with the will of God and the moral quality of the proposed act. To consult anything else is to sin against his own soul.
Again, the pastor when facing his congregation on Sunday morning, dare not think of the effect his sermon may have on his job, his salary or his future relation to the church. Let him but worry about tomorrow and he becomes a hireling and no true shepherd of the sheep. No man is a good preacher who is not willing to lay his future on the line every time he expounds the Word. He must let his job and his reputation ride on each and every sermon or he has no right to think that he stands in the prophetic tradition.

And the same principle is binding upon the religious writer and editor. The scribe who will trim his copy to hold his job is unworthy of public confidence. The editor who will reject an article or a paragraph of an article because he is afraid to accept it is standing in the shadow of the fear of consequences. The publisher who allows desire for profit or the fear of losing sales to decide what books he shall print is on a moral level not too far above the money-changers Christ drove out of the Temple. All these examples point up to a grave modern evil, permitting temporal consequences to decide eternal issues.

Prayer
"I choose Thee, blessed will of God! In Thee alone my heart can rest." Those words of May Stephens are my prayer, Father.

Thought
God's will extends into every area of life--public and private, secular and sacred, temporal and eternal. There can be no compromise when it comes to the clear will of God. We obey it or we disobey it.

Used with permission.