The Pursuit of God

I am reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.  Well, let me rephrase that..I am praying the thoughts, ideas, and Scriptures in the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.  I want to share Chapter 2 of the book, "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing"

The chapter starts by explaining, that the Lord prepared for us a world of useful and pleasant things for our sustenance and delight. These things were for man's use and always was meant to be external to the man and subservient to him.  In the deep heart of man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. We know sin was introduced and God was forced out of His central shrine and other things were allowed to enter.  Men now have no peace for God is no longer crowned there and stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for the first place on the throne.  You can see it to be true for within the human heart is a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess.  God's gifts now take the place of God.

Then Jesus said to his disciples,

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves

and take up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,

but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 

Matthew 16:24-25

Our self-life loves and enjoys these things but we cannot allow the enemy of self-life to live.  If we allow this enemy to live,in the end, we lose everything.  To repudiate it and give up all for Christ's sake is to lose nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life eternal.  The only effective way to destroy this foe; It is by the cross. 

The way to a deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things.  The blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things.  They have broken the yoke of the oppressor, and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering.  Through free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things.

The chapter goes on to illustrate this in the life of Abraham as he surrendered Isaac upon the alter before the Lord.  Abraham became a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing yet he possesses it all, understanding his real treasures were inward and eternal.

The ancient curse (our hearts clinging to things, relationship, etc) will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die in obedience to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant... from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence, as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging and to recognize it as springing out of self=pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart.

I plan on this being a recurring prayer in my life. For as Abraham did...when he laid Isaac upon the alter, I must do with my all my things, relationships, etc. Importantly, I can be willing but the battle rages on to continue and continue until the lust of things die. God is faithful and I see it as another way of depending and trusting Him to crucify this flesh. I know it is true...give it all up and He restores it! What freedom...die flesh die!

This  is not a book I received for free.  This is a review and a copy of Tozer's words for no other reason than to spur you on to godliness.  It is a must read not once but several times.  May your hunger for God be stirred.  For once you taste this life of grace, nothing can compare!