The Pursuit of God

I just finished the book I was reading, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, and it was so so wonderful. After thinking about how I wanted to share what I learned with you all, I have decided that since there are 10 chapters, I will share one or two things I learned from each chapter.

Chapter 1: Following Hard After God
- "God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may." I don't usually think of God this way...as a person like me. Sometimes I get caught up in the idea that He's just this big guy up in the sky who tells me how to live my life. That is absolutely not true! I am made in His image...which means all those characteristics I have (thinking, enjoying, feeling, loving, desiring, suffering...) are characteristics of HIM! What a wonderful realization. :)
- "We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. [...] The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One." I think sometimes I convince myself that if I give my life to God, I'll lose something (or many things) from this world. God says the exact opposite...if I give my life to Him and let Him be my treasure, I will actually gain all things. I'll only lose the things that weren't important in the first place. :)

Chapter 2: The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing
- "Sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul." This chapter talks about how God created many useful and pleasant things for us, but how these things are meant to be external to us. This means that we are not to let these things take over our hearts. Reading this, I consider how much time I spend on Facebook, or how I use my time in ways that do not glorify God. And then I repent.

Chapter 3: Removing the Veil
- "He is omniscient, which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events." Wow. If that's not extremely humbling, I don't know what is. What stands out to me the most, other than the fact that God knows all those things, is that He knows in one free and effortless act. Whew! What do I have to worry about? He's pretty much amazing. Yup.
- "All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that might be said of Him." This just makes me smile. The fact that God is just so sweet that we'll never run out of things to say about Him...awesome. :)

Chapter 4: Aprehending God
- "Imagination is not faith. The two are not only different from, but stand in sharp opposition to, each other. Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there." I found this really interesting, because it just goes to say that what we believe is not just something we make up. It is pondering and believing in what is already here.

Chapter 5: The Universal Presence
- "If we co-operate with Him in loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face." Mmmm...I want that second life. :)

Chapter 6: The Speaking Voice
- "The believing man does not claim to understand. He falls to his knees and whispers, 'God.' The man of the earth kneels also, but not to worship. He kneels to examine, to search, to find the cause and the how of things." This makes me realize how often I can be the man (or woman, really) of the earth. How many times do I try to figure things out for myself, rather than just praising God? :/
- "I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking." I don't have much to say about this, other than that I completely agree, and I like that he says 'religious mists'.

Chapter 7: The Gaze of the Soul
- "As long as Christ sits on the mediatorial throne, every day is a good day and all days are days of salvation." Read that again. I just did, and I was once again reminded that I can have a good day every day if I just keep God on the throne. :) Now, if that were only as easy to do as it is to say...

Chapter 8: Restoring the Creator-Creature Relation
- "Some of the most rapturous moments we know will be those we spend in reverent admiration of the Godhead." The definition of rapturous is this: "full of, feeling, or manifesting ecstatic joy or delight." Need I say more?
- "Millions call themselves by His Name, it is true, and pay some token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. [...] However the man may protest, the proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life." Reading this, I wonder just what my choices prove. Where is God placed among other things in my life?

Chapter 9: Meekness and Rest
- "Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh." This just really teaches me that sin does have a really negative impact on our lives. And not just our spiritual lives, but our physical lives as well.
- "The burden borne by mankind is a heavy and crushing thing. [...] Rest is simply release from that burden." Tozer goes on to examine this burden that we carry...he explains that it attacks our heart and mind. He says that we carry the burden of, among others, pride (or self-love), and we can experience rest, or release from that burden, only through Christ Jesus. Good stuff.

Chapter 10: The Sacrament of Living
- "One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas, the sacred and the secular. [...] Our inner lives tend to break up so that we live a divided instead of a unified life." This really gets me thinking...how much do I divide my life? I really strive to live this unified life, but I know sometimes I get caught in the trap of living a divided life.

Well I'm not going to keep you reading any more, because I know that was a lot. I was just really blessed by this book and I am happy for the opportunity to share it with you. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think. :) God bless!