The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

I have been reading a book entitled "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer. This book was written in the late 40's yet is still relevant in our time. I am making slow progress, as every time I pick it up, I must have a block of time in which to read, meditate, digest the words. As you might have picked up from my blogging, blocks of time are scarce, thus making this slow reading! HA!

What I want to talk about is the second chapter. I read this over a month ago yet the words of it still ring in my ears as a beautiful encouragement and comfort, especially in the midst of financial crisis that is currently overwhelming our country.

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.

(any quotes that I present are from this chapter in this book.)

When God created all the "things" of the world, he intended for them to be external and subservient to man. God created us with a place in our hearts to be filled by none other than God Himself. The trouble for us began when we allowed "things," the very gifts that God gave us, to replace Him in our hearts. We allowed these "possessions" to take root in our hearts. We use the words "my" and 'mine" when we truly should acknowledge that all things are from God, that we and all things are His. Our "self life" is actually "an enemy within us which we tolerate at our own peril."
"To allow this enemy to live is in the end to 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." When Christ refers to the "poor in spirit," this is what He is referring to. To get to that place, we need to follow these words, "Let him take up his cross and follow Me."
The poor in spirit are the ones who are not slaves to things, to possessions, gain, profit, earthly and familial relationships.

Tozer made an example in this chapter of Abraham and his son Isaac. God realized that, since Isaac was a miracle baby, Abe's whole live revolved around him. Abraham had everything that would constitute worldly possessions. He had his precious son. God knew that for Abe to surrender himself and to become poor in spirit (God didn't ask him to be poor in possessions), he was to sacrifice his own son. Imagine the grief and confusion that Abe felt as God asked this of him! Abraham ultimately obeyed God and was rewarded by not only being able to have his son live and his descendants be the chosen people of God, but the temple within his heart was made available for God to "reign unchallenged."

In the scenario of the state of financial crisis our country is experiencing...where are our hearts? Will we survive great financial loss? Security in things? When we put our hope and faith into things and people, where do we find ourselves when the going gets rough? Things will go away, people will let us down. God will never do either. He will always be with us. If we put our hope in Him, when the going gets rough, we still have Him! We will never lose everything. He will always take care of us.

I pray that we all can allow the roots of possessions to be pulled from our hearts so that God, our Heavenly Father, can reside there, filling us to the brim with His love and care.

Here is Mr. Tozer's prayer at the conclusion of this chapter:

"Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide them from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' name, Amen.