Sunday, January 12, 2014

God Does Not Play on Our Emotions

"Did not our heat burn within us, while he talked with us by the way ...?" (Luke 24:32)

I do not know how familiar you are with the ways of God and the tender movings of His Spirit. But I will tell you this quite frankly: God does not play on our emotions to bring us to the point of spiritual decision.

God's Word, which is God's truth, and God's Spirit unite to arouse our highest emotions. Because He is God and worthy of our praise, we will find the ability to praise Him and to glorify Him. Some religious and evangelistic techniques are directed almost entirely to the emotions of those who are listening to the appeal. They are psychology, not Spirit-directed conviction.

I have to disagree with religious appeal that supposes if someone in the audience can be moved to shed a tear, a saint has been made. There is no connection whatsoever between the human manipulation of our emotions, on the one hand, and, on the other, the confirmation of God's revealed truth in our beings through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. When in our Christian experience our emotions are raised, it must be the result of what God's truth is doing for us.

Whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God.

~A. W. Tozer~

No comments:

Post a Comment