Is God my heart's desire?

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. - Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV)

Before the Lord God made man upon the earth, He first prepared for him a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of creation, these are simply "things." In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God, and without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him. But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul. Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine, and things were allowed to enter.

The way to a deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are those who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the "poor in spirit." In the story of Abraham and Isaac, we have a dramatic picture of the surrendered life as well as an excellent commentary on the first Beatitude. As Abraham watched Isaac grow from babyhood to young manhood, the heart of the old man was knit closer and closer with the life of his son, till at last, the relationship bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an unclean love.

There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in this life. Because it is natural, it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is. We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety. This is especially true when those treasures are loved, relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.

Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. 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.
Then shalt Thou makes the place of Thy feet glorious.
Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there.
In Jesus' name,
Amen

Excerpts from "The Pursuit of God" by AW Tozer

All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
I surrender all; I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all. - Judson Van De Venter

Be Encouraged to make God your heart's desire and surrender all to Him.

-Jeffrey Thornton