Lord Be Merciful: Selected Writings of A. W. Tozer

In the four works collected here, A.W. Tozer exhorts the faithful to develop a deeper understanding of God and a closer relationship with Him. Through prayer, meditation, study, and a close adherence to the scriptures, Tozer shows that a powerful spiritual life is available to all who seek it.


A.W. Tozer (1897–1963) spent his career as a pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He received no formal education after his youth, instead working as a laborer. Coming home one day as a teen, he heard a street preacher say, “If you don't know how to be saved…just call on God, saying 'Lord be merciful to me a sinner.'" This call began a life devoted to Christ. Throughout his career, he served as a spiritual leader to his small congregations. He also became a well-loved Christian writer, publishing books and articles for magazines like Christian Life and Alliance Weekly.


Throughout all his writings, Tozer focused on the fundamentals of Christianity, always supported by the scriptures. He consistently eschewed complexity. Instead, he always returned to simple prayer and worship as the path to God.


The Pursuit of God is one of Tozer's best-loved books. Considered a Christian classic, it seeks to bridge the gap between an understanding of the Biblical fundamentals and the all-consuming feeling of a deeper Presence. Once a Christian begins to pursue God, Tozer says, he will find that God's love is in fact pursuing him right back.


Tozer felt that worldliness was one of the strongest barriers to a better connection with God. He urged readers to abandon their love of the material, and to meditate on the proper relationship of man to God. Each chapter contains a new lesson that can help the reader break down another barrier between himself and his Creator.


Keys to the Deeper Life includes four of Tozer's essays on the spiritual lives of his fellow Christians. He discourages the faithful from focusing on increasing the number of Christ's followers. First, there must be a return to “New Testament Christianity, not in creed only but in complete manner of life as well.”


He had observed that his contemporaries were content with an average spiritual life, leaving so many of God's gifts unearned through their complacency. Tozer hoped to awaken his readers to the possibility of a stronger faith and deeper relationship with God.


How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit is a collection of four of Tozer's sermons that explore the nature of the third element of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit is not a What, but a Who-a Person without matter who permeates everything around us. Tozer asks the reader to dive deep within themselves to ask if they truly want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For to do so, the faithful must surrender themselves completely to the will of God.


Originally written as sermons to be spoken rather than read, this collection has a simple conversational style that readers will find approachable. Tozer explores a complicated, abstract concept and turns it into something the reader can comprehend and internalize.


The Christian Book of Mystical Verse is a collection of hymns, verses, and poetry curated by Tozer. Written by Christians of many different denominations and nationalities, each contribution “…begin[s] with God, embrace[s] the worshipping soul and return[s] to God again.” Tozer organized the verses into fifteen categories to be used as a daily devotional, or as a guide when the reader wishes to pray on a specific topic.


Tozer's writing gets to the heart of Biblical truth. His call to “…follow your Lord and pay no heed to the passing religious vogue,” provides a guiding light amid the distractions of modern life.