Reading this book was 13 or 14 years in the making. My brother, Jeff, gave me this book while we were in college and I was pursuing a lot of things other than God. Because I was in full flight mode, I couldn't read the book then. At this point in my life, it was a much more meaningful exercise.
I love Tozer's writing because he's never trite and rarely simple, but he has a great talent for being clear even when he's going deep theologically. It is evident even in his title here. A writer could not be more ambitious about his topic choice than the pursuit of God and yet, as Tozer points out, pursuing God simplifies everything. The first quote illustrates it beautifully.
"A satisfying prayer life elevates and purifies every act of body and mind and integrates the entire personality into a single spiritual unit. In the long pull we pray only as well as we live."
How I could have used a passage like this when I was busy pursuing the world back in college:
"It will be a new day for us when we put away false notions and foolish fears and allow the Holy Spirit to fellowship with us as intimately as He wants to do, to talk to us as Christ talked to His disciples by the sea of Galilee. After that there can be no more loneliness, only the glory of the never-failing Presence." p. 141
If you haven't read it yet, regardless of where you are in your walk with God, get a copy of Pursuit of God and get to work.
1 comment:
I think this is a great book as well, based on my college memories of it (I ought to go back to it!) but I do take issue with the idea that once Jesus is in your life, you'll never be lonely again. Being a Christian isn't all hearts and rainbows, unfortunately... much as I appreciate Tozer's wisdom and how it has stood the test of time.
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