THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO A GODLY LIFE
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (PHILIPPIANS 3:14).
The causes of retarded spiritual progress are many. It would not be accurate to ascribe the trouble to one single fault.

One there is, however, which is so universal that it may easily be the main cause: failure to give time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God!

The temptation to make our relation to God judicial instead of personal is very strong. Believing for salvation has these days been reduced to a once-done act that requires no further attention. The young believer becomes aware of an act performed rather than of a living Saviour to be followed and adored.

The Apostle Paul was anything but an advocate of the once-done, automatic school of Christianity. He devoted his whole life to the art of knowing Christ!

We may as well accept it: there is no shortcut to sanctity. Even the crises that come in the spiritual life are usually the result of long periods of thought and prayerful meditation. As the wonder grows more and more dazzling there is likely to occur a crisis of revolutionizing proportions. But that crisis is related to what has gone before in the preparation of waiting upon God. It may come as a sudden sweet explosion, an up rushing of a tide that has been increasing its pressure within until we can no longer contain it!

A. W. Tozer