Photo Credit: Liam Simpson
Recently, the Lord introduced me to A.W. Tozer. I have been reading one of his works for sometime now, and I will like to share some of it with you. Receive insight and understanding as you read in Jesus name.
A desire to know God above all else
As crooked as old Jacob was, he had one redeeming quality: He had a holy discontent in the depths of his heart where he wanted to know God, and God knew it. God knew that nothing could keep Jacob out if he wanted to know God bad enough, and Jacob did.
If you are not discontented, but you are satisfied with where you are, then I do not know anything that can be done. I do not know anything anybody can do. There was nothing anybody could do for Esau. Esau was satisfied with himself and his life. He possessed no spiritual longing. Nowhere in the whole life of Esau was there any evidence of moral discontent or spiritual yearning. It is the most precious treasure you have —that spiritual longing in your heart for God.
Jacob illustrates for us how God can take a man who looks like nothing and can use him. God can take such a man who is discontent with his spiritual life and has a longing for God, and God can meet that man in the splendor of experience and use that man for His honor and glory.
O God of Jacob, how we identify with that man, and how we identify with the discontent he experienced in his own life. May we never be satisfied with ourselves and where we are, and may we have a longing for You that will enable You to break through and meet us where we are. Amen and amen.
— A.W. TOZER, Culled from Voice of a Prophet
My Commentary:
One day, couple of years ago, I was studying the book of Genesis… I had read the life of Abraham, Isaac, and was now reading the life of Jacob. I was going through a crisis at the time and I was asking God, “Why?!!” So, this morning at work, (those days in Lagos, I arrived work pretty early, sometimes as early as 7am…) I was reading the chapter where Laban had pursued Jacob and Jacob was lamenting to Laban saying, “What is my crime? How have I wronged you that you hunt me down?…and you changed my wages 10 times..” Almost immediately, I chuckled and said… seriously Jacob?! You mean you have forgotten what you did to Esau… seriously, you don’t know what your crime is?! At that instance, I too got an answer to my prayer… Remember, I’d said that I was going through a crisis and I was asking God why… in that moment I was reminded of something I’d done to someone in the past… something really terrible... and shameful. Then I saw I was no different from Jacob. I too had treated someone badly and that made the person struggle — to put it mildly. And here I was suffering the exact same thing years after. That morning I put down the Bible and confessed my sin in repentance to God. Many of us are like Jacob; deceiving, conniving, cheating, treacherous and lying… and until we cry out to God for help we cannot be saved. Until we hunger and thirst for Him, we cannot be filled. Until we want nothing from the world and desire everything that He gives, we will never be free.
Therefore, as you say the prayer above, do yourself a favor and personalize it:
'O God of Jacob, how I identify with that man, and how I identify with the discontent he experienced in his own life. May I never be satisfied with myself and where I am, and may I have a longing for You that will enable You to break through and meet me where I am. Amen and amen.'
Romans 7:24-25 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! —NIV/NLT
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