The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

A few months back I mentioned that I was about to begin reading The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer. Admittedly, as with most non-fiction stories, I was very enthusiastic about it to begin with until something shiny came along and I became distracted.

Wanting to keep to my goal of spending more time in the Word and to reading in general, I picked the book back up and started at the chapter where I had left off entitled, "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing." Tozer has certainly touched on a profound Truth when he discusses the issue of "things" (i.e. things of this world/possessions) dethroning God from the center of our lives:

(parts in bold are my own)

"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.

This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets things with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns my and mine look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant.

The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution."