Host: Good morning. This is The Pursuit of God Daily for Friday, October sixteenth. We continue in chapter one of The Pursuit of God, Following Hard After God, now in the fifth of seven readings, where Tozer calls us away from religious complexity and back to God Himself.

Reader: Second Corinthians, chapter eleven, verse three. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Reader: From A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter one, Following Hard After God. I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.

Reader: Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.

Reader: If we would find God amid all the religious externals we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now as always God discovers Himself to “babes” and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.

Reader: When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the “and” lies our great woe. If we omit the “and” we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.

Host: Tozer borrows his key phrase straight from the Apostle Paul. Paul was afraid for the Corinthians, not that they would stop being religious, but that their minds would be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. The danger he names is subtle. It is not open rebellion; it is drift, a heart slowly crowded until Christ is one item among many.

That is what Tozer means by the little word and. God and my plans. God and my reputation. God and the busy calendar of good works. None of these may be wicked in themselves, but when they stand beside God as equals, they quietly divide the heart.

We see this in the home at Bethany in Luke chapter ten. Martha was serving the Lord Himself, yet she was cumbered about much serving. Jesus did not scold her for working. He said, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Mary had not found a better program. She had found the Person, and sat at His feet.

Tozer also says God discovers Himself to babes. That comes from our Lord's own prayer in Matthew eleven, verse twenty-five: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. A child does not come to his father with a strategy. He simply comes. And right after that prayer, Jesus says, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The simple approach is not a technique for reaching God; it is the posture of someone who has stopped trying to impress Him and is leaning on the grace He has already given in His Son.

The psalmist puts the whole matter in one line, in Psalm seventy-three, verse twenty-five: Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

So here is one thing to carry into today. Before the day's work begins, name your own and. What is the thing you quietly add to God, as though He were not enough? Hand it to Him by name. Then sometime today, set aside five unhurried minutes with no list and no agenda, and simply sit at His feet like Mary, asking for nothing but Himself.

Host: Lord Jesus, You are the one thing needful. Forgive us for the many things that crowd You out, and for every way we have tried to impress You instead of simply coming to You. Strip us down to what is essential, give us the candor of a child, and stir in us a holy desire for You alone. We ask this in Your name. Amen.

Host: Whom have I in heaven but thee? Psalm seventy-three, verse twenty-five. Go with God.