My mind in the last few weeks and months has taken me to a notion of my need to hunger for God and take responsibility for cultivating my relationship with him. Scripture is clear that this is the case.
While reading Psalm 42 this morning, I had this thought. Read the Psalm with this in mind: David is preaching to himself. Many, many times in our lives our hearts or spiritual selves are dark, dry and difficult. It is in those times that we must fight. It is in those times that we must remind ourselves of the Steadfastness of the love our God.
So, as you go today, preach the gospel to yourself.
From The Pursuit of God
I am rereading A.W. Tozer's classic The pursuit of God. I reread my favorites once a year or so and this is one of them. Sometimes I can't get past a chapter or a page because of it's depth and weight. The second chapter is one I can't quit reading. The following few paragraphs are taken from it. The chapter is titled, "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.
But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.
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.
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.
But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.
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.
