I never cease to be amazed at the wisdom and relevancy of A.W. Tozer. Though he died in 1963, his writings continue to inspire and convict over fifty years later. I am convinced that the key to intimacy with God is being totally obsessed with Jesus. Until we live every moment of our lives with Him at the forefront of our thoughts, we will never discover the life He intended us to live. With that in mind, I recently read a very timely piece by Tozer. In it he said, “Only engrossment with God can maintain perpetual spiritual enthusiasm because only God can supply everlasting novelty. In God every moment is new and nothing ever gets old. Of things religious we may become tired, even prayer may weary us; but God never! … Nothing can preserve the sweet savor of our first experience except to be preoccupied with God Himself!”
For anyone who has ever been in love, you know what it is like to be preoccupied with thoughts of another. You can’t eat, sleep, or think. Every thought is consumed with the object of your affection. It is an awesome feeling, one in which we catch only the slightest glimpse of the love God has for each and every soul in His creation. The feelings are wonderful, terrifying, and all together consuming. There is nothing we wouldn’t give to spend a few moments with the one we love. All of life becomes meaningless apart from the precious time we spend in their company. Of course the intensity of these feelings fades a bit with time, but they forever affect us such that we are in some way forever changed.
Did you ever feel this way about God? When you came to understand His love, His incredible sacrifice for us, were you overwhelmed? For many, the salvation experience is indeed an incredible and emotional one. For others, it is less so. What you felt at the moment of surrender is irrelevant. How you feel about Jesus today means everything. Every day should be consumed with thoughts of Him. Much like falling in love, we should scarce be able to even eat because we are so enamored of our Savior. What He did for us should keep us in a constant state of awe and thankfulness. There is no end to His love, His beauty, and His mercy.
We can spend our entire lives devoted to seeking after God and never come close to exhausting all that He is. He is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds. We can get lost in the magnitude of His love every day. Instead we choose to dwell on cheap imitations of His essence and seek to fulfill the desires of our hearts in temporal trinkets. Our lives are not our own. We have been bought at an unfathomable price (1 Corinthians 7:23). The God of the universe is waiting to envelop you in His inexhaustible love. Every moment of our lives should be lived with our minds preoccupied with Him. He deserves nothing less. You committed to give Him all of your life. Are you holding up your end of the bargain? How different would your life look if you were truly preoccupied with God? Why not try it today?