Do Not Defend Yourself, Tozer 2

I thought I was going to die at about thirty—I am fifty-five and still percolating—but He said, “I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil” (Exodus 23:25–26). And that is as long as I want to live.

Verse 27 says, “I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.” God said that to me, and then He said this, and I am not sure but God may have a sense of humor too, because verse 28 cannot be explained unless there is just a wee little bit of humor in the heart of God. He said, “And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.”

Imagine the great God Almighty, who made the seven stars and rolled the Pleiades yonder, stooping to have a bee run interference for me. I stopped fighting right there. I stopped in principle. I admit I broke over sometimes, but every time I broke away I came back with a black eye, a bloody nose and a hurt heart.

I have a tongue like a rapier. God knows how long it has taken to sanctify it, and I am doubtful about it yet, but every time I have dared to use a hot tongue I have recoiled, and it took me days and months to get over it. God said He would do my fighting for me (Exodus 14:14). If you insist on fighting, I warn you: you are up against a terrible enemy.

So if you hear something that is said about you, do not run around trying to straighten it out. It is just like trying to pick soot off the front of your white shirt—you just smear it around. Let it go; God will blow it off for you. It will not hurt you. Do not say, “It is not fair.” The devil invented the phrase, “It is not fair.” So take this vow before God never to defend yourself.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

A. W. Tozer and Lyle W. Dorsett, Tozer Speaks to Students : Chapel Messages Preached at Wheaton College (Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread, 1998), 86–89.