The Word of God: Shortest Route to Spiritual Peace

By A. W. Tozer

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man.
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ.                                             --Ephesians 4:13

   The work of God is not finished in the heart and life
of the new believer when the first act of inward
adjustment has given him a sense of cleansing and
forgiveness, peace and rest for the first time in his life!

   The Spirit would go on from there to bring the total
life into harmony with that blissful "center." This is
wrought in the believer by the Word and by prayer and
discipline and suffering.

   It could be done by a short course in things spiritual if
we were more pliable, less self-willed and stubborn; but
it usually takes some time before we learn the hard
lessons of faith and obedience sufficiently well to permit
the work to be done within us with anything near to
perfection.

   In bringing many sons unto glory, God works with
whatever He has in whatever way He can and by
whatever means He can, respecting always His own
gift to us, the freedom of our wills. But of all means
He uses --- the Bible is the best.

   The Word of God well understood, and religiously
obeyed, is the shortest route to spiritual perfection,
and we must not select a few favorite passages to the
exclusion of others. Any tinkering with the truth, any
liberties taken with the Scriptures, and we throw
ourselves out of symmetry and invite stiff discipline
and severe chastisement from that loving Father who
wills for us nothing less than full restoration to the
image of God in Christ!

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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.