Host: Good morning. This is The Pursuit of God Daily for Monday, October nineteenth. Today we begin chapter two of The Pursuit of God, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, with the first of seven readings, where Tozer shows us how the good gifts of God came to sit on a throne meant only for God.

Reader: Luke twelve, verse fifteen. And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Reader: From A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter two, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing. Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply “things.” They were made for man’s uses, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him.

Reader: But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.

Reader: Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter. Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.

Reader: This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets “things” with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns “my” and “mine” look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease.

Reader: The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.

Reader: Our Lord referred to this tyranny of things when He said to His disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

Host: Notice where Tozer begins. Not with a warning about money, but with a garden. Genesis two tells us that the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The things were good. God made them, and God gave them freely. Paul says the same to Timothy: our trust is to be in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. So the trouble Tozer names is not that we have things. Tozer is saying the trouble is where the things live. They were meant to stay outside us, serving us, while the inner shrine of the heart belonged to God alone.

Sin turned that order upside down. The gifts moved inward, and the Giver was pushed out. That is why Jesus answered a man quarreling over an inheritance with these words, which we heard at the start: Take heed, and beware of covetousness. Then He told of a rich man who said, I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. Listen to his pronouns. My fruits. My goods. My soul. Tozer calls those little words verbal symptoms of our deep disease, and the parable bears him out. God's verdict on that man was that he was not rich toward God.

Our Lord's remedy is not a technique for managing possessions. It is the cross. In Matthew sixteen, right after the words Tozer quotes, Jesus asks, For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? The only way out of the tyranny of things is to deny ourselves and follow Christ, finding our life in Him. And because He went to the cross first, and rose again, following Him is not loss in the end. Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

So here is something to carry into today. Listen for the word mine in your own mouth and in your own thoughts. Each time you catch it, about your time, your plans, your rights, your things, pause and quietly hand that thing back to God. Say, Lord, this is Yours. Let the gifts return to their proper place, and let Christ have the throne.

Host: Lord God, You have given us richly all things to enjoy, and we have let those gifts crowd You out of the place that is Yours alone. Forgive us. Loosen the roots of our hearts from the things we cling to. Teach us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus Christ, in whom our true life is found. Take Your throne within us again. In His name we pray, amen.

Host: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians three, verse two. Go with God.