Pursuing Our Creator Uninhibited

I'm currently reading A.W. Tozer's Pursuit of God. When picking out something to read, I was looking for a piece that would challenge me. I wanted to read something that caused me to think beyond myself and push my understandings. Tozer is good for that. The entire premise of the book is to challenge the religiosity that we have accepted as "norm" and continue to seek after our Creator because, quite simply, that is what we were created to do.

I find it interesting when people who claim to be Christians (myself not excluded) take the gifts that we have been given by our Creator and they begin to take the place of our Creator. Like I said, I am as guilty as anyone on this front, especially with gifts like family and friends. Tozer puts it like this:

We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.

Christian teachings tell us that Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" (Luke 9:23-25) We cling to ourselves. We grasp at those "things" that we claim make us who we are. But aren't we nothing without Christ? Without the God who created us and seeks a personal and intimate relationship with us, we are nothing, and more than that, we are eternally lost.

Tozer uses the story of Abraham as an example for this sacrifice. He proposes that (understandably) Abraham treated Isaac in such a way that he began to take God's place in Abraham's heart. Tozer believes that this is the reason that God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son. While we know that this serves to represent what God would later do through Jesus, Tozer presents an interesting point. When we possess those gifts from God, how much room are we leaving for God to work through us, sometimes utilizing or even stripping us of those gifts? After completing the impossible task given to him, God provides Abraham with a sacrificial lamb to take the place of his son. Abraham was a wealthy man in worldly standards (in that time, a large flock, men to work the animals, ect.) but I love how Tozer puts it, "He had everything, but he possessed nothing."

Are we willing to let go of those gifts we hold so dear in order to pursue our Heavenly Father first and foremost? Are we willing to be like Abraham and sacrifice the very fulfillment of God's promise to be loyal and obedient to God? What gift am I putting before the King of Creation?