Hey Everyone,
Hope you're week is off to a good start. And I hope you made it through Chapter 1 :) Tozer is a deep thinker and writer! Let me encourage you to keep at it, and see what God would have for you in reading this book. In our reading assignment last week, along with the Preface and Chapter 1, I included a scripture - Proverbs 2:1 - 5.
Turn there now if you have a minute... Notice the progression of pursuit, it builds from "turning your ear to wisdom" to "call out for insight" to "cry aloud for understanding" to "looking" to "searching for hidden treasure". Every time I read this passage in Proverbs the image of a search party combing through the woods looking for a lost child comes to mind. If you're a parent, and your child was lost, you would search and search and search until you found your child. You would rearrange your day, your priorities, your resources, everything in your life would be centered on searching!
Turn there now if you have a minute... Notice the progression of pursuit, it builds from "turning your ear to wisdom" to "call out for insight" to "cry aloud for understanding" to "looking" to "searching for hidden treasure". Every time I read this passage in Proverbs the image of a search party combing through the woods looking for a lost child comes to mind. If you're a parent, and your child was lost, you would search and search and search until you found your child. You would rearrange your day, your priorities, your resources, everything in your life would be centered on searching!
Seek hard after the Lord! When we resolve to seek hard after the Lord, it's not because He is hiding from us. Often times it is because, similar to a lost child, we have aimlessly wandered from Him. We have allowed the things of this world to capture our attention, fear and anxiety have taken captive our thoughts and self-seeking interests have seized our hearts! Read Mark 4:13-20 and Luke 8:11-15 and look at the various obstacles that Jesus says will keep us from a fruitful relationship with the Lord.
Assignment for this week:
Reading - Read Chapter 2 of Tozer. In addition, I encourage you to read Genesis 22:1-19
Journal - In Chapter 2, Tozer mentions the throne of our hearts and how important that nothing reside there but God. Notice in Genesis 22:12 that Abraham does not withhold anything from The Lord! Is there anything you are withholding from the Lord? When we let go of everything, and come to God empty-handed, we are "possessing nothing" as Tozer says it, and then Jesus alone can sit on the throne of our hearts and life!
Prayer - Psalm 63:1 - 5. This is the same prayer passage from last week. This week, I encourage you to zero in on 1 key word in verse 5,satisfied. I have this short prayer written next to verse 5 in my Bible - "May I be fully satisfied in you alone Lord." Maybe this is prayer you could pray as well?
Keep seeking the Lord. Praying for each of you by name!
Kevin
4 comments:
"Father I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys."
Well HELLO reality! It is so crazy to think about all the things my heart holds onto. And how God is just mushed into the spaces left, instead of him being welcomed to consume my whole heart.
Lord help me clean out everything in my heart that is not you! And to not let the things come back in. I give you my whole heart to consume.
Ironic that this week is when the bills hit and my monthly stress of living down to pennies to ensure it's all takenc are of. Why? Because I've made my life centered around the stuff and not Christ.
"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".
One thing that I think oddly came easy to me was this line "our lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him..." This has been my saving thought when it comes to my children, family, would I be devisated by the loss of one of my beautiful babies? yes, but I gave them To Him as he surely blessed me with them. When he calls them, they are His.
Just a few bite size thoughtsof mine from this chapter.
I pray that my life be driven by the desire to gain Christ and not things.. Christ alone, not the things of Christ, but the love of Jesus himself.
"God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution" - The things in our life are gifts from God in and of themselves they are not bad until they become necessary to us and we rely more on them than we do God.
"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". - The truth in this sounds so freeing! I have let go of things in my life in the past and turned to God and the freedom in Christ has been amazing. Why do I still hold on/rely on things over God?
"There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic." - To me this is why is is so dangerous - it is natural or pounded into our heads our entire life. Live the "American Dream" - school, job, marriage, kids, car, house. Its all around us and we are being told daily once you have these things you will be happy.
"If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy we must go the way of renunciation. And if we are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later bring us to this test." - I want a deeper relationship with God. I am in a deeper pursuit of Him and excited about it, but this scares me. As we grow deeper with us at some point He is going to ask us to choose or He will test us in some way. I pray that I can respond in faith as Abraham did and fully trust God will provide.
Lord,
Thank you for all the blessing you have given me to enjoy in this life. I pray for the strength and faith to trust you. Allow me to realize the gifts you have given me are from you and I should hold them with open hands. Please reveal to me where I have replaced You with other things in my life. Help me find the right balance of enjoying the gifts You have given me without putting them as a higher priority than You.
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