There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. ~2 Timothy 3:16-17
Lots of things reach an end to their usefulness. The other day I threw away an empty toothpaste tube. When it was new, its contents were useful and beneficial. But there came a moment when the tube completely lost its usefulness. It became clutter and trash. Everything useful had been used up and it would no longer provide anything beneficial. So in the trash it went…where it will join tons of other refuse that has no useful qualities.
The Word of God never runs out of usefulness. I squeeze it and squeeze it and its profitability actually increases instead of diminishing. There’s nothing else like it in life. There’s nothing else that gets MORE useful the more it’s used.
You know, I’ve heard the story of Abraham at least hundreds of times since my childhood. I’ve heard it preached in sermons. I’ve read entire books devoted to Abraham. Yet, as I’ve studied his life over the last weeks, it’s like an endless well of cool water that refreshes my soul.
A. W. Tozer, in his book, The Pursuit of God, points out some things about Abraham…
I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was still his to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. The books on systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will understand.
After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words “my” and “mine” never had again the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which they connote was gone from his heart. Things had been cast out forever. They had now become external to the man. His inner heart was free from them. The world said, “Abraham is rich,” but the aged patriarch only smiled. He could not explain it to them, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real treasures were inward and eternal.
There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic.
God has really been teaching us to possess nothing. Whether it’s physical property, material goods, relationships, careers, futures, hopes, dreams, sorrowful things from the past, money, expectations, children, or even a spouse…it is all His. He purchased me…that includes everything. All His.
We are learning the lessons that Abraham learned. To possess nothing. Of course, there are things we need…but we don’t want to possess those things. We want to leave it all to our Sustainer and Provider and Lover of our souls.
After all, who knows what the created needs better than the Creator, Himself?
Today, we find ourselves trusting wholly and fully in Him for our future. There have been moments of stark terror, actually. Days when the future steals the breath from my lungs. But far greater have been the moments when we are walking boldly and with faith in our Great God. Some would call it blind faith, against common sense, and think it foolish. I can’t say that it’s not against “common” sense. Yet, there is nothing common about God and His ways.
Blessed be the Name of the Lover of our souls.