Tozer begins chapter three with Augustine's confession that God formed us for Himself and that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him, and with the sorrow that we have fled from His Presence. The episode opens with Isaiah 43:7.
Tozer teaches that the blessedness of renunciation must be lived, not learned by rote, and that God brings each seeker to a testing place with one choice and its alternative. The opening verse is Joshua 24:14-15.
Tozer teaches that whatever we commit to God is truly safe, that our gifts are His loan, and that the seeking Christian must stop defending himself and deal with God specifically and in earnest. Opening verse: 2 Timothy 1:12.
Tozer shows that after Moriah Abraham still had everything but possessed nothing, his real treasures now inward and eternal, and he warns that possessive clinging to things is a deeply harmful habit. Opening verse: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.
Abraham resolves to obey God and trust Him to raise Isaac from the dead, and God, having removed the boy from the throne of Abraham's heart, gives him back with a sworn blessing for all nations. Opening verse: John 12:24-25.
Tozer turns to Abraham and Isaac as a picture of the surrendered life, showing how even a God-given love can grow perilous when it crowds God from the center, and how God stepped in to save father and son. Opening verse: Hebrews 11:17-19.
Tozer names the possessive self-life as an enemy that is overcome not by fighting but by surrender at the Cross, and urges us to take this as a step to climb rather than doctrine to store. Opening verse: Matthew 5:3.
Tozer shows how God's gifts, meant to stay outside us and serve us, have pushed God out of the heart's central shrine, and how the possessive “my” and “mine” reveal our deep disease, which Christ answers with the call to deny ourselves and follow Him. Opening verse: Luke 12:15.
Tozer concludes the first chapter: the one who has God for his treasure has all things in One, and loses nothing when lesser treasures go; he closes with a prayer to want God more. Opening verse: Matthew 13:44.
Tozer teaches that making God our All does not narrow the heart but enriches it, urging us to seek God Himself rather than His gifts, as Levi received the Lord Himself for his inheritance. Opening verse: Numbers 18:20.
Tozer urges holy desire for God and a return to the simplicity that is in Christ, warning that seeking God-and keeps us from finding God Himself. Opening verse: 2 Corinthians 11:3.
Tozer points to David, Paul and the singing Church as believers who kept seeking the God they had already found, and mourns a teaching that treats first faith as the end of pursuit. The opening verse is Psalm 27:4.
Tozer teaches that the new birth is not the end but the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of the infinite God, illustrated by Moses, who, having found grace, asked to see God's glory. Opening verse: Romans 11:33.
Tozer warns that we can lose God amid the wonders of His Word, and reminds us that God is a Person who is known through long, loving, conscious fellowship. Opening verse: John 17:3.
Tozer teaches that before we can seek God, God has first sought us, yet we must answer His drawing by following hard after Him rather than settling for a mechanical faith that is content with little. The opening verse is Psalms 63:8.
Tozer warns that right opinions and sound exposition can leave God's people starving unless they lead to finding God Himself in personal experience, and he offers this book to help the hungry find Him. Opening verse: Psalms 34:8.
Tozer opens The Pursuit of God by naming a growing hunger for God Himself, warning that correct doctrine without the fire of God's presence cannot satisfy that longing. The opening verse is Psalms 42:1-2.