An Old Friend

July 19, 2013

I've been renewing an old friendship this summer.  A.W. Tozer has long been a joy to read. Demanding at times but always helpful and encouraging.  Downright motivating.  Thanks to Amazon.com I was able to pick up: "The Pursuit of God," "God's Pursuit of Man," "The Knowledge of the Holy," and "The Christian Book of Mystical Verse" to round out my library VERY reasonably.  It will be a busy summer as I attempt to digest Tozer's work devotionally, a chapter a day...

In chapter 7 of "The Pursuit of God" (I noted in my journal) -

Tozer writes of faith as a looking upon God, as a gazing after God.  The distractions of life are those matters which take our gaze off of God, which cause us to focus on things of the flesh.  I hear anxiety, worry, cares of the world, things I can't but seem to want to control... And yes, to be candid these are the very things which distract me from Jesus.  Tozer writes specifically:  'The man who has struggled to purify himself and has nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the Perfect One.'

And yet I, and I believe so many of us, worry - Am I good enough? Have I done enough? not just in an attempt to become more like Jesus but in an honest attempt to honor and to serve him.  And yet we end up setting up this idol of righteousness which we cannot ever approach.  Too often then it denigrates into the self-righteous thoughts that permeate our souls and penetrate our hearts distracting us in far too familiar ways - "Well at least I'm trying, look at ________" and our judgement condemns us. 

What are we to do?

As I read Tozer and reflect on the many who have given so much I can only think of Hebrews 12:1-2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

And so I pick myself up, AGAIN, refocus my attention from self to Him, the Perfect One, and stand in awe that he would love me.   And thanks to the Perfect One and His work through a great hymn writer  I have the words to respond...

Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.