"...so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe."
If faith is the gaze of the heart at God, and if this gaze
is but the raising of the inward eyes to meet the all-seeing eyes of God, it follows
that it is one of the easiest things possible to do. It would be like God to
make the most vital thing easy and place it within the range of possibility for
the weakest and poorest of us.
Because believing is looking, it can be done without special
equipment or religious paraphernalia. God has seen to it that the one
life-and-death essential can never be subject to the caprice of accident.
Equipment can break down or get lost, water can leak away, records can be
destroyed by fire, the minister can be delayed or the Church burn down. All
these are external to the soul and subject to accident or mechanical failure: but
looking is of the heart and can be done successfully by any man standing up or
kneeling down or lying in his last agony a thousand miles from any Church.
Because believing is looking it can be done any time. No season
is superior to another for this sweetest of all acts. A man is not nearer to
Christ on Easter Sunday than he is, say Saturday, August 3, or Monday, October
4. As long as Christ sits on the mediatorial throne, every day is a good day
and all days are day of salvation.
Neither does place matter in this blessed work of believing
God. Lift your heart and let it rest upon Jesus and you are instantly in a
sanctuary, though it be a Pullman berth or a factory or a kitchen. You can see God
from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him. This heart-gaze is, in
fact, happily practiced every day by many, and is beyond the reach of none
A.W. Tozer, in The Pursuit of God
f FROM THE DEVOTION BOOK: HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD