“The pronouns ‘my’ and ‘mine’ look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology ever could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.” (p22)
“Abraham had everything but he possessed nothing. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. The world said, ‘Abraham is rich’, but the aged patriarch only smiled. He could not explain it to them, but he knew he owned nothing, that his real treasures were inward and eternal.” (p27-28)
“The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw.” (p30)
“Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there.” (p30)
-AW Tozer
The Pursuit of God
Teaching Adventures 