A. W. Tozer is a well-known theologian who was a minister in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church for many years. During his lifetime he authored several books–The Pursuit of God being his most famous–but, his true passion was worship. He lived to glorify God and to make him known. Tozer knew beyond a shadow of a doubt why and for whom he was created:
I do not walk around with my head down, looking sad, because somebody has written more books than I have or knows more than I know or has been to school longer than I have. Because I have a little secret: I can tell you why I was born, why I am here and my everlasting duties while the ages roll.
A. W. Tozer
Everywhere we look in our world today there are people searching for meaning, wondering why they are here, lost in a sea of inconsequential duties and meaningless goals.
Some are so very lost that they finally give up, ending their own lives, having never discovered a worthy reason to go on.
So then, what is our purpose? Why were we created?
To borrow from A.W. Tozer’s book, The Purpose of Man:
“God’s purpose in creating Adam and Eve is summed up in what they could do for God that nothing else in the whole of creation could do.”
Hmm…let’s think about that for a moment. In Genesis we read that God created man in his image and likeness. (Gen. 1:26-27) Nothing else in all creation was made in the same manner. Man was the only created thing capable of joining his very spirit with God in fellowship and communion. Adam and Eve’s purpose was to bring pleasure, joy, and honor to God–to love Him. Sounds a lot like the foundations of worship, doesn’t it?
When Adam and Eve sinned and disobeyed God’s direction in the garden, (known as the fall of man) they broke fellowship with him and lost touch with their original purpose.
Ever since that day, man has been striving to find meaning again.
We look for it in our careers, our children, our titles, our popularity, our status, our degrees. We look for it in worthwhile causes and even in church work.
We long for a worthy goal to which we can devote our lives–something to satisfy our soul and bring us peace. The fact that we have this longing in our hearts betrays a long lost memory of our perfectly purpose-filled lives before the fall.
It doesn’t help that the enemy is such a crafty opponent. He places things in our paths to attract our attention and we grab at them, thinking they will repair our spiritual identity, bringing us fulfillment.
Tozer wrote that most of us are in a spiritual fog, searching–in all the wrong places–to find a reason for our existence.
Revelation 4:11 says this: “You are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.”
And Psalm 95:6 says: “Oh come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”
So, why are we here? To love, honor, and adore, the God of the universe. To worship Him.
Our very lives are meant to be an act of worship to Him– to glorify Him and bring Him pleasure. And a heart fully devoted to Him is our greatest act of worship.
It is not by doing for Him that we fulfill our purpose of worship, but by being fully his!
We properly worship God when we approach Him with a heart of wonder, awe, devotion and humility.
Tozer’s secret, simply put, was that he knew his purpose in life. Oh, that we would all grab ahold of that little secret for ourselves and live with renewed purpose, joy, and peace…devoting and dedicating our very lives to the worship of the one true, creator God!
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3
Heart of the Matter 