AW (Aiden Wilson) Tozer was a Christian pastor, spiritual mentor, and author. Today he is known widely for his great works of literature, and AW Tozer quotes frequent the mouths of preachers and Christians across the globe.
His conversion to Christianity happened as a young boy when he heard a street preacher say, “If you don’t know how to be saved, just call on God.” Wasting no time at all, Tozer did exactly that when he got home, and his life has never been the same. The powerful AW Tozer quotes we hear today are due largely to that beautiful moment in the attic when he received Christ as Lord and Savior.
That simple moment would characterize his life and ministry in countless ways, giving birth to the thought-provoking AW Tozer quotes you’ll read below. While the quotes of many of the Christian greats are feel-good and syrupy sweet, AW Tozer quotes dig straight into the heart of God and heart of man, relaying His Truths in a manner that may unsettle and disrupt our false perceptions of Him and ourselves in all the right ways.
22 Powerful AW Tozer Quotes
1. “We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is.”
2. “Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.”
3. “Every man must choose his world.”
4. “God never uses anyone greatly until He tests them deeply.”
5. “We get the odd notion that God is showing mercy because Jesus died. No. Jesus died because God is showing mercy.”
6. “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
7. “We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.”
8. “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
9. “Rules for Self Discovery:
1. What we want most;
2. What we think about most;
3. How we use our money;
4. What we do with our leisure time;
5. The company we enjoy;
6. Who and what we admire;
7. What we laugh at.”
10. “The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. ”
11. “Trying to be happy without a sense of God’s presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun.”
12. “A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man’s greatest tragedy and God’s heaviest grief.”
13. “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”
14. “God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, “0 Lord, Thou knowest.” Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.”
15. “Christians don’t tell lies they just go to church and sing them.”
16. “Sometimes I go to God and say, “God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already. God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn’t pay Him for what He’s done for me.”
17. “The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source.”
18. “What we think about when we are free to think about what we will – that is what we are or will soon become.”
19. “Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies.”
20. “The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.”
21. “A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man’s greatest tragedy and God’s heaviest grief.”
22. “Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.”
If these AW Tozer quotes inspired you in your walk with God, be sure to SHARE them with the people you love today!
