I have everything I could ever ask for, and many more I never would have thought to ask for. From my wife to my kids to my friends and health and talents and house and cars and clothes, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. God gave them to me to enjoy. And I really don’t think it is wrong to have and enjoy them.
Unless.
Unless I mistakenly believe these things are my possessions. Unless those things become necessary to me. Unless I let those things distract me from God. Tozer titles the second chapter of The Pursuit of God “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing”. In it, he suggests that:
the way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation [denial] of all things.
Is is those that have denied all things that Tozer labels the “poor in spirit” that Jesus talked about in Matthew 5:3. These “poor in spirit” have:
reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem [or Columbus].
To help demonstrate, he uses the example of Abraham and his son Isaac. Isaac had taken an inappropriate place in the heart of Abraham. Abraham had unknowingly allowed this gift from God to be the object of an affection that God reserves for Himself. After God spared Isaac from sacrifice, Abraham was once again aware that while he had everything, he possessed nothing. All was God’s, who bestowed it on Abraham to enjoy and care for. He was, spiritually speaking, a common beggar.
How do we approach the problem of having everything while possessing nothing? Tozer suggests two things:
Put away all defense and make no attempt to excuse himself in his own eyes or before the Lord.
Remember that this is holy business. No careless or casual dealings will suffice.
We must confess the sin of idolatry to ourselves and our Lord. There is no excuse and no way to partially come clean. We must come to a holy God and beg Him for forgiveness and then be willing to purge whatever may need purged in order to possess nothing in our hearts whatsoever!
I have everything I could ever ask for…and none of it is mine!
