The Pursuit of God: Updated Edition Paperback – June 30, 2015

This book has become a classic of the Christian faith. Knowing God, knowing more and more about God, His attributes, and His heart is essential for a full and satisfied life. This book can help jump-start your own pursuit of God.Following are a few quotes to whet your appetite to read on:The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose, he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever.The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and giving up of all things.The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the spirit of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.the presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His presence.The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, and the church is famishing for want of His presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter His presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us.God is here. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not. Ten million intelligences standing at as many points in space and separated by incomprehensible distances can each one say with equal truth, God is here. No point is nearer to God than any other point. It is exactly as near to God from any place as it is from any other place. No one is in mere distance any farther from or any nearer to God than any other person is.Let any man turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, and the results will exceed anything he may have hoped in his leaner and weaker days. Any man who by repentance and a sincere return to God will break himself out of the mold in which he has been held, and will go to the Bible itself for his spiritual standards, will be delighted with what he finds there.The facts are that God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second person of the Holy Trinity is called the Word. The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God’s continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind for us, put into our familiar human words. I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but it is also a book which is now speaking.Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity- conscious” and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.So let us begin with God. Behind all, above all, before all is God. He is first in sequential order, above in rank and station, exalted in dignity and honor. As the self-existent One, He gave being to all things, and all things exist out of Him and for Him.

This book is so good! A must if you want to grow in your faith the Lord!! So many great quotes!

“The pursuit of God” offers a powerful introduction and a compelling invitation to all who would follow Christ more fully. Tozer sets out foundational truth about Christ and what it is to follow Him in a clear and simple fashion, doing so in a way that renews the vision of a committed disciple and draws the heart of one who longs for a closer walk with the Lord. I have read this book a number of times over the years and each time I am both fed and made hungrier still for God to work by His Spirit in my life.

Tozer is a classic religious writer. He has his way with words and expressions to the most astounding degree. This could be the result of utmost absorption of his mind in God and also his unfathomable gift. The following quote is rather long, but it's worth the read."The sincere plain man knows that the world is real. He finds it here when he wakes to consciousness, and he knows that he did not think it into being. It was here waiting for him when he came, and he knows that when he prepares to leave this earthly scene it will be here still to bid him good-bye as he departs. By the deep wisdom of life he is wiser than a thousand men who doubt. He stands upon the earth and feels the wind and rain in his face and he knows that they are real. He sees the sun by day and the stars by night. He sees the hot lightning play out of the dark thundercloud. He hears the sounds of nature and the cries of human joy and pain. These he knows are real. He lies down on the cool earth at night and has no fear that it will prove illusory or fail him while he sleeps. In the morning the firm ground will be under him, the blue sky above him, and the rocks and trees around him as when he closed his eyes the night before. So he lives and rejoices in a world of reality.With his five senses he engages this real world. All things necessary to his physical existence he apprehended by the faculties with which he has been equipped by the God who created him and placed him in such a world as this."Chapter 4, "Apprehending God", P. 36,37I have nothing much else to say except that this work will become world classic literature. Tozer would stand up among men as much as a Steinbeck or a Hemingway of religion. A person would gain so much from reading him and will come out feeling more blessed than ever."In himself, nothing; in God everything. "Chapter 9, Meekness and Rest, P. 89

Each chapter is worth reading twice.Our motivation, as a Christian, ought to be to live each day to the glory of God. “Living” can bring Him glory.

I found this book to be a strong motivator for a deeper relationship with God. It has strengthened my faith and has helped me to refocus on what is truly the most important.