We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone (We) have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that our spiritual awareness is lacking due to societal influences and superficial pursuits.
Aiden Wilson Tozer reflects on the decline of genuine spirituality in society, attributing it to a tendency to compare ourselves with others and seek worldly approval instead of striving for a deeper connection with the divine. He argues that this leads to a hollow spirituality, where real joy and power from the Holy Spirit are replaced by artificial substitutes. Tozer encourages a re-evaluation of our spiritual priorities and a return to seeking true fulfillment and enlightenment.
In practice
A speaker at a spiritual retreat might use this quote to challenge attendees to assess their spiritual lives critically.
Peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christian but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity.
The average Christian is so cold and so contented with His wretched condition that there is no vacuum of desire into which the blessed Spirit can rush in satisfying fullness.
Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquility under every circumstance.
The church that can't worship must be entertained. And leaders who can't lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.
Before the Christian Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, ‘What is God like?’ and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is; and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind
People who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks: 1. they are facing only one direction, 2. they can never turn back, and 3. they no longer have plans of their own.
To be a Christian who is willing to travel with Christ on his downward road requires being willing to detach oneself constantly from any need to be relevant, and to trust ever more deeply the Word of God.
The main character of any living system is openness.
America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.
The mere physical man is like the ant crawling on the paper, who observes black lettering and attributes its production to the pen and nothing more.
Now I can only pray that there may be a God -- and a heaven -- or something better.
We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?
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