Host: Good morning. This is The Pursuit of God Daily for Tuesday, October twentieth. We continue in chapter two of The Pursuit of God, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, with the second of seven readings, where Tozer names the enemy within and the one way it is overcome.

Reader: Matthew chapter five, verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Reader: From A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter two, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.

Reader: Breaking this truth into fragments for our better understanding, it would seem that there is within each of us an enemy which we tolerate at our peril. Jesus called it “life” and “self,” or as we would say, the self-life. Its chief characteristic is its possessiveness: the words “gain” and “profit” suggest this. To allow this enemy to live is in the end to lose everything. To repudiate it and give up all for Christ’s sake is to lose nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life eternal.

Reader: And possibly also a hint is given here as to the only effective way to destroy this foe: it is by the Cross. “Let him take up his cross and follow me.”

Reader: The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the “poor in spirit.” They have reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem; that is what the word “poor” as Christ used it actually means. These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things.

Reader: They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Reader: Let me exhort you to take this seriously. It is not to be understood as mere Bible teaching to be stored away in the mind along with an inert mass of other doctrines. It is a marker on the road to greener pastures, a path chiseled against the steep sides of the mount of God. We dare not try to bypass it if we would follow on in this holy pursuit. We must ascend a step at a time. If we refuse one step we bring our progress to an end.

Host: Tozer says there is an enemy within each of us, one we tolerate at our peril, and he gives it a plain name: the self-life. Its mark is possessiveness. It wants to gain, to keep, to hold. And notice what Tozer is saying about how that enemy is beaten. Not by fighting harder, but by surrendering. Not by self-improvement, but by the Cross. That is exactly where our Lord points us. In Luke chapter nine, verse twenty-three, Jesus said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Daily. The self-life does not die once and stay quiet; it has to be brought to the Cross again each morning. Paul shows us what is on the other side of it in Galatians chapter two, verse twenty. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. The Cross that ends the self-life is the same Cross where the Son of God gave Himself for us. We do not surrender to a cold demand. We surrender to a Savior who loved us first. That is why the poor in spirit are called blessed. Having let go, they are held. Then Tozer turns and presses the point home. Do not file this away, he warns, as mere Bible teaching stored in the mind with an inert mass of other doctrines. James says the same in chapter one, verse twenty-two. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. A truth we only admire becomes a truth we slowly forget. Tozer calls it a step on the path up the mount of God, and he is sobering about it: refuse one step, and the climb stops there. So here is one way to carry this into today. Before the day gets loud, name one thing you are gripping tightly. It may be a possession, a plan, or simply the right to have your own way. Name it before the Lord, and open your hand. Say, this is Yours. Then, when it comes back to mind during the day, and it will, take up that cross again, quietly, and follow Him.

Host: Lord Jesus, You gave Yourself for me. Show me what I am holding that I should lay down, and give me grace to surrender it, not by my strength but by Your Cross. Make me poor in spirit, that I may know You as my treasure. Keep me from hearing Your word and forgetting it. Lead me up the path one step at a time, and let me not refuse the next one. Amen.

Host: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Go with God.