One of A.W. Tozer’s most popular books, The Pursuit of God, has been labeled a “Christian classic,” which he wrote for believers “whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself.” I encourage you to read the whole book, but for now, consider what Tozer shares in the chapter titled “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.”
Abraham, as we know, woke up early the next morning, intent on obedience. “God let the suffering old man go through with it up to the point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand upon the boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, ‘It's all right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love. Now you may have the boy, sound and well. Take him and go back to your tent. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.’”
After reading that, it is obvious to me that there are often things and people which challenge God’s reign in my life. My heart echoes the prayer with which Tozer closes this chapter: “Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival.”
-Abbey Le Roy