Mathew 5:3"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
In Chapter 2 of A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God, we find what lies at the heart of the issue in many of our lives: putting anything else in the place where God ought to be.
Whenever sin entered the world, the right order of things became scrambled. We became rebellious towards God and put idols on the thrones of our hearts.
Whenever we have accepted Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, but are now slaves to righteousness--to Christ himself (Romans 6:18). He has taken back him throne in our hearts. Our lives--every moment and each and every action--belong to him now.
In The Pursuit of God, Tozer addressed the story of Abraham and Isaac. I had always looked at this story to be more about obedience to God that anything else, but Tozer says that whenever Isaac was born in Abraham's old age that "his heart knit closer and closer with the life of his son, till at last the relationship bordered upon the perilous."
Of course, Abraham must have been terrified by God's request. Offer my son, who I've waited for so long for, upon an alter as a sacrifice? I'm sure his heart was anguished at the thought.
Obviously, God never intended for Abraham to actually slaughter his son, but he requested his obedience anyway. Why is that?
Tozer states "God could have begun out on the margin of Abraham's life and worked inward to the center; He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over with in one sharp act of separation. In dealing thus, He practiced an economy of means and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective."
God chose to removed Isaac from the throne of his father's heart swiftly, so that he could be put back in his rightful place in Abraham's heart. Abraham had come to making everything about his son, and out of love God turned his world upside down with a single command. This wasn't done to separate father and son, but in order to have Abraham face his priorities and rearrange them.
And we do the same as Abraham did today. We worry so much about our reputations, our children, how we homeschool, our jobs, etc., that we don't even realize it when we've shooed God off the throne of our hearts and put all of these other things in his place.
So why do we cling to our idols? Money, possessions, people in our lives, jobs, security, entertainment, etc.?
If Christ lives in us, then we shouldn't be ruled by the stuff in our lives. Jesus referred to how much control things have in our lives when he spoke to his disciples in Mathew 16:24 "If any many will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it."
Within American Christianity today, there is this unsettling sense of entitlement. It's taught in many churches as well as over television, that if we will become a Christian that we can prosper, have our best life now, and that all is apparently sunshine and rainbows.
Most people refuse to speak about what God says concerning things out of fear of being labeled as homophobic, a hatemonger, or the like.
To speak out on the issue of abortion, even other "Christians" will criticize you, saying to "judge not" or ask you "where is your grace?"
We need to wake up. Christ did not redeem us so that we could have our best life now. In fact, if we are truly submitting to Christ and following his charge to make disciples (Mathew 28:19), chances are that we will face adversity. We may lose our stuff, the security of having extra money, our home, our friends and family, and our reputation to those still in the world. Yet, we can count it all a blessing whenever we face persecution, because our reward is in heaven.
One of the benefits of when God puts us through the refining fire, and we lose everything, is that we depend fully upon him. Suffering strips away all of the superficial, and reveals the truth. His grace is sufficient for us, and in the end God's thoughts and laws is all that matters.
Romans 5:3-5
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured our his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
We all must count the cost of following Christ. We will lose some peoples esteem, relationships with friends and family, and may suffer financially if we are adhering to the Gospel. But in the end, the only one that matters is God. If we have done as he has charged us, though many people may hate us and say all types of slanderous things about us, it is all worth it.
We all place too high an importance on things from time to time. Pray that God rips them from the thrones of our hearts so that we can turn, repent, and follow him once more.
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