The Pursuit of God

Introduction

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for this is that its author belonged to these same circles. With his wife, he raised a family on a tight budget. He rode the bus. He even followed the fortunes of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. He was different from ancient spiritual writers who lived in faraway places. In so many ways, he was one of us. The Christian faith involves believing that certain things are true. It also involves behaving in certain ways that are good. But The Pursuit of God reminds us that there is more to the Christian faith than just believing and behaving, essential as both of these are. There must also be a relational dimension, an aspect of real meeting—of actual encounter—with the living God. Indeed, such genuine connection to God is the sustaining supply line for any enduring faith and life of service. To underscore this point, Tozer quoted the great evangelist John Wesley: “Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion.” 14 This comment has been taken by some people to mean that our beliefs are relatively unimportant when it comes to the spiritual life. Nothing could be further from the truth. The martyrs of the Christian faith died for their convictions, not their feelings, and the early church left us noble declarations of beliefs. This statement of Wesley, which Tozer quotes, should be understood to mean that mere mental assent to doctrines is insufficient to sustain a living faith. 15 twentieth century. 14 JohnWesley, A Plain Account of the People CalledMethodists (Bristol: Felix Farley, 1749), 4. 15 “To believe on Christ savingly means to believe the right things about Christ. There is no escaping this.” A. W. Tozer, “How Important Is Creed?,” The Alliance Witness , August 8, 1962, 2.