Host: Good morning. This is The Pursuit of God Daily for Saturday, October seventeenth. We are in chapter one of The Pursuit of God, Following Hard After God, and today we read the sixth of seven parts, where Tozer turns to what it means to make God our All.

Reader: Numbers, chapter eighteen, verse twenty. And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

Reader: From A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter one, Following Hard After God. 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. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the One.

Reader: The author of the quaint old English classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, teaches us how to do this. “Lift up thine heart unto God with a meek stirring of love; and mean Himself, and none of His goods. And thereto, look thee loath to think on aught but God Himself. So that nought work in thy wit, nor in thy will, but only God Himself. This is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God.”

Reader: Again, he recommends that in prayer we practice a further stripping down of everything, even of our theology. “For it sufficeth enough, a naked intent direct unto God without any other cause than Himself.” Yet underneath all his thinking lay the broad foundation of New Testament truth, for he explains that by “Himself” he means “God that made thee, and bought thee, and that graciously called thee to thy degree.”

Reader: And he is all for simplicity: If we would have religion “lapped and folden in one word, for that thou shouldst have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable: for so it is better than of two, for even the shorter it is the better it accordeth with the work of the Spirit. And such a word is this word God or this word love.”

Reader: When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes of Israel Levi received no share of the land. God said to him simply, “I am thy part and thine inheritance,” and by those words made him richer than all his brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principle here, a principle still valid for every priest of the Most High God.

Host: There is a fear that creeps into many sincere hearts. If I give myself wholly to God, will my life grow small? Will I lose something? Tozer answers plainly: the opposite is true. And the Scripture he points us to shows why.

When the land of promise was divided, the tribe of Levi was left without fields or vineyards. To the eye that looked like loss. But the Lord said to Aaron, I am thy part and thine inheritance. Levi was not given less. Levi was given the Giver. The other tribes received a portion from God; Levi received God as his portion.

David took up the same language in Psalm sixteen. The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Notice that David does not sound like a man who has narrowed his life. He sounds like a man who has found the widest place there is. And Jeremiah, sitting in the ruins of Jerusalem with everything else stripped away, could still say, The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Tozer is saying that this is not only Levi's story. He calls it a principle still valid for every priest of the Most High God. And the apostle Peter tells every believer in Christ, ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. We have been brought near through the blood of Jesus, not to receive His gifts alone, but to have Him. That is why the old writer Tozer quotes urges us to mean Himself, and none of His goods. We may thank God for every good thing, but the gifts are not the inheritance. He is.

So here is something to carry into today. Before the day fills up, pause and pray one small word, as that old writer counseled: God, or love. Not a list, not a request, just a naked intent toward Him. And when you notice yourself reaching for something to make the day feel full, say quietly with the psalmist, The LORD is my portion. Let that be enough, because He is.

Host: Father, You have given us Yourself in Your Son, and there is no greater inheritance. Forgive us for grasping after Your gifts and forgetting You. Lift our hearts to You with a meek stirring of love today, and teach us to want You for Yourself. In Jesus' name, amen.

Host: The LORD is my portion, saith my soul. Lamentations three, verse twenty-four. Go with God.