Is It Worth My Effort?

Here’s more from A.W. Tozer:

A fairly accurate description of the human race might be furnished to one unacquainted with it by taking the Beatitudes, turning them wrong side out and saying, “Here is your human race.” For the exact opposite of the virtues in the Beatitudes are the very qualities which distinguish human life and conduct.

In the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which Jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous Sermon on the Mount. Instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness we hear men saying, “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing”; instead of mercy we find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imaginings; instead of peacemakers we find men quarrelsome and resentful; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command.

Of this kind of moral stuff civilized society is composed. The atmosphere is charged with it . . . And this is the more to be wondered at seeing that these are the evils which make life the bitter struggle it is for all of us. All our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our sins. Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh.

-- The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer, Chapter entitled, "Meekness and Rest."

And then he sums it up in one statement: “The esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”

Our true worth comes not from the approval of people, but of God. Without Him we are nothing. With Him, we can be everything He has created us to be.

Do you know what you are supposed to be? Do you know what purposes you were created for? The world is a cruel taskmaster, and its approval, though we chase after it all of our days, eludes us forever. But Jesus said, “Come to me.” Only when we turn our efforts to pleasing God alone will we ever find ourselves, our purpose, our worth. What does He require of us?

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? – Micah 6:8

Have you found out from Him what this means for you today?

Tags: Jesus
Spirituality, Christianity, Beatitudes, Humility