Host: Good morning. This is The Pursuit of God Daily for Friday, October twenty-third. We are in chapter two of The Pursuit of God, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, part five of seven. Abraham has come down from the altar on Moriah with Isaac alive beside him, and today Tozer tells us what changed in his heart.

Reader: First Corinthians, chapter seven, verses twenty-nine through thirty-one. But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

Reader: From A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter two, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing. The old man of God lifted his head to respond to the Voice, and stood there on the mount strong and pure and grand, a man marked out by the Lord for special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most High. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it from him. God could have begun out on the margin of Abraham’s life and worked inward to the center; He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation.

Reader: In dealing thus He practiced an economy of means and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective.

Reader: I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was his still to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. The books on systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will understand.

Reader: After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words “my” and “mine” never had again the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which they connote was gone from his heart. Things had been cast out forever. They had now become external to the man. His inner heart was free from them. The world said, “Abraham is rich,” but the aged patriarch only smiled. He could not explain it to them, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real treasures were inward and eternal.

Reader: There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic.

Host: Tozer is saying something that sounds at first like a riddle: Abraham had everything, but he possessed nothing. Nothing was taken out of his hands. The sheep and the camels were still there. Sarah was still there. Isaac was walking home beside him. What had changed was not the inventory of his tent but the grip of his heart.

The apostle Paul says the same thing in the verses we heard this morning. They that buy, as though they possessed not. Paul does not tell the Corinthians to stop buying, or to stop using the world. He tells them to use it without being owned by it, because, in his words, the fashion of this world passeth away. That is Tozer's point exactly. Things may stay in our hands; they must not stay on the throne of the heart.

King David understood where all of it comes from. When Israel gave so freely for the building of the temple, David prayed, in First Chronicles twenty-nine, verse fourteen, for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. If everything we have came from God's hand, then the words my and mine were always on loan. Abraham simply came to know it.

And notice why Abraham could smile when the world called him rich. He knew, Tozer says, that his real treasures were inward and eternal. The letter to the Hebrews describes believers who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. The Lord Jesus put it plainly in Matthew six, verse twenty-one: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. A heart whose treasure is God cannot be robbed, because no thief can reach where that treasure is kept.

Tozer ends today with a warning. This possessive clinging is so natural that we rarely see it for the evil it is. So here is one way to carry this into today. Pay attention to the word mine as it comes out of your mouth or crosses your mind: my time, my plans, my car, my family, my reputation. Each time you catch it, say quietly, Lord, this is Yours, and I am holding it for You. You will not lose a thing. You will find your hand a little more open, and your heart a little more free.

Host: Father, everything we have comes from Your hand. Loosen our grip on the gifts, so that You alone hold the center of our hearts. Teach us to use this world without being owned by it, and to treasure You above all. We ask it in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Host: Remember Matthew six, verse twenty-one: where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Go with God.