This summer I’ve been studying Tozer’s The Pursuit of God with my two daughters, ages 22 and 16. Every Thursday we go someplace, a restaurant or a park, and talk about the next chapter.
And I’m reminded of what this book meant to me when I read it for the first time, only a few years ago.
All those years as a Christian, I knew about this book. But as much as I was seeking the Lord and trying to point other people to Him, for some reason I was never drawn to The Pursuit of God. It was one summer, after crying out with Moses for the Lord to show me His glory, that I was re-introduced to Tozer.
But now, my heart was ready, because of some intense work the Lord had been doing in my soul. I call it “plowing.” That’s because in Christ’s parable of Matthew 13, the reason the seed of the Word couldn’t take proper root in three of the soils was that the soil hadn’t been dug up and prepared. Only one soil received the seed to bear fruit, the soil that had been plowed.
I think the Lord had been doing some plowing in my life all through the years. I know He had. But about ten years ago, after I complained to Him about “The Wall” in my Christian life, and after he eventually brought it down, then the plowing became intense. Sometimes I felt like I wouldn’t survive it.
Then The Pursuit of God came into my hands. Almost every word of that book resonated with me, driving me again, with intense longing, to the Scripture. To the Savior.
So now, in 2009, I’m reading it again, for the third time. And once again, I’m connecting with others who know that there is a River, the streams of which make glad the city of God. Like Tozer, we’ll get to know more and more by experience, not just by intellectual assent, that the River is the Presence of God, and that we are the ones from which the River flows.
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Go here to download your free Guide, How to Enjoy the Bible Again (when you’re ready) After Spiritual Abuse (without feeling guilty or getting triggered out of your mind). You’ll receive access to both print and audio versions of the Guide (audio read by me). I’m praying it will be helpful.
