The Loneliness of the Christian

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 absorptions in the love of Christ; and because with his circle of friends there are few who share his inner experiences, he’s 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 the 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.###
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Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897-1963) was an American, pastor, preacher, magazine editor, Bible conference speaker, spiritual mentor, and author of more than 40 books, including at least two now regarded as Christian classics: The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. Though he had no formal theological training, his spiritual acumen and life’s work was recognized by two Christian colleges who bestowed upon him honorary doctorate degrees. He was affiliated with Christian and Missionary Alliance for his entire 44 years of ministry that began with his first pastorate in a small storefront church in Nutter Fort, WV, only five years after his conversion in 1919, and his longest pastorate spanning 30 years Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. The father of seven lived a simple and non-materialistic lifestyle his whole life, never owning an automobile, preferring to travel by bus or train. Tozer gave away most of his substantial book royalties to the poor. The inscription on his grave-marker in Akron, Ohio, reflects the simple life this anything but simple man lived, saying simply: “A. W. Tozer – A Man of God.”

A few select A.W. Tozer Quotes:
“I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame, and I choose it above all things on Earth or in Heaven.”

“To be effective the preacher’s message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God’s present voice to a particular people.”

“We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.”

“When we try to focus our thought upon One who is pure uncreated being we may see nothing at all, for He dwelleth in light that no man can approach unto. Only by faith and love are we able to glimpse Him as He passes by our shelter in the cleft of the rock.”

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.”

“Dare we, the heirs of such a legacy of power, tamper with the truth? Dare we… alter the pattern shown us in the Mount? May God forbid. Let us preach the old cross and we will know the old power.”
“When a denomination starts to backslide, they always start to elevate their standards academically. The less we have the Holy Ghost, the more we have to know about Plato and Aristotle.We call that being acquainted with contemporary theology.”

“Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.”

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