The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing (Part 1)

If you read this blog very long, you will figure out quickly, I appreciate the writings of A.W. Tozer. I would like to spend a few blogs sharing one of my favorite chapters from Tozer.

A.W. Tozer - The Pursuit of God
Chapter 2, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing (Part 1)
. . . 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.
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.”

Later in the chapter Tozer states, “As is frequently true, this principle of spiritual life finds its best illustration in the Old Testament. In the story of Abraham and Isaac we have a dramatic picture of the surrendered life as well as an excellent commentary on the first Beatitude.”

Tozer goes on to describe in how Abraham became a ‘love slave of his son.’ He writes, “As he watched him grow from babyhood to young manhood the heart of the old man was knit closer and bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love.

Tozer continues by describing the story in Genesis 22 of Abraham and Isaac going to the mountain to offer a sacrifice with the idea that Isaac was going to be the one sacrificed, however after Abraham was obedient enough to perform the sacrifice, the Lord provided a different sacrifice. During this time, Abraham surrendered his love for Isaac to obey the Lord. Tozer writes, “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.”
Stay tuned