I’m going to a woman’s retreat this weekend, so it’s not in my best interest to tell you what A.W. Tozer and Martyn Lloyd-Jones say about retreats and such, but I will:

“So many of us say, ‘All right, I’ll attend another Bible conference,’ or ‘I’ll take a course,’ or ‘I’ll buy a book.’ My friends, what we need is not more instruction, we’ve been instructed to death. Where in the world is there more fundamental Bible teaching than here in Chicago? This is the Mecca of Fundamentalism. This is the Vatican of Evangelicalism. We’ve got notebooks at home stacked high that go back twenty-five years. They tell us of some new sidelight on some text or some new illustration somebody gave to point up a doctrine. But, oh, what weak creatures we are! What joyless people we are!” (A.W. Tozer, “These Faithful Wounds”)

“You may be in a dry, arid spiritual condition, and you read a biography somebody gives you. And as you read it your heart is warmed and moved and you feel altogether better and different. It leads you to a season of prayer for this blessing and great diligence in your Christian life. But that only lasts for a while. Then you read another such book and the same thing happens again. You can spend your life like that.” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable)

There’s nothing wrong with retreats, any more than there’s something wrong with weddings. But the crucial thing is the day after. And the day after that. Tozer adds, “I believe God wants us to long for Him with the longing that will become lovesickness, that will keep us always moving toward Him.” I have that, and if you ask how I got it, it is His grace as I pray constantly and read his Word like my life depends on it.