"Why do we content to abide all our days just outside the Holy of Holies and never enter at all to look upon God?"
Tozer
It is a question that makes my heart ache because the answer, is of course, I am not willing to seek Him with an undivided heart. My old nature is at war with the new, and I struggle to surrender the things I've come to treasure. Things that have somehow slowly worked their way into a heart designed to hold but One.
I'm not sure any one thing is easier to surrender than another. We become comfortable with our habits, and it is hard to think of giving them up. Some seem so insignificant we can somehow justify their place in our hearts. After all - it isn't hurting anyone.
If it's hard to surrender those things, how much more difficult to lay down the good things in our lives - our family, our ministry, our good works. Surely God wouldn't want us to give Him those things too.
Why are we so reluctant to gather up our most prized possessions and lay them at His feet?
"We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety - especially if they are loved ones. Everything is safe which we commit to Him - nothing is really safe which we haven't"
Tozer
Can that be true? Are we afraid to trust Him with what we value most? I wrote a post about my struggle with this a while back. You can find it here.
It is that "upside-down kingdom" again - this taking what we believe and turning it on its head. We clutch to our hearts the things we treasure, afraid if we give them to Him He will either do something we won't like or require something we cannot give. And this great God, whose heart overflows with love for us, looks with longing and asks, "Do you love me? Will you trust me?"
If we will look at Him, and see with eyes of faith we will know that there is no safer place than His arms. He will take whatever we give Him, and He will do all that He has promised. It won't be easy. There will be a "death" of sorts - times of struggle and sorrow. But:
"When the painful work is finished and the suffering victim dies then comes resurrection glory and power...the veil is taken away and we have entered in actual spiritual experience the presence of the living God."
Tozer
Blessings,
Linda
