Why does God exist? Many of us treat God like a great genie in Heaven who should give us our every wish and whim and then we stamp our feet with frustration when we don’t get it. But should this be our expectation? Here are a few words of wisdom on this topic from Tozer–
Brethren, we ought to learn—and learn it very soon—that it is much better to have God first and have God Himself even if we have only a thin dime than to have all the riches and all the influence in the world and not have God with it!
John Wesley believed that men ought to seek God alone because God is love, and he advised people in his day: “If anyone comes preaching and tells you to seek anything more than love, do not listen, do not listen!” I think in our day we are in need of such an admonition as, “Seek more of God—and seek Him for Himself alone!” If we become serious-minded about this, we would soon discover that all of the gifts of God come along with the knowledge and the presence of God Himself.
Actually, anything or anyone that keeps me from knowing God in this vital and personal way is my enemy. If it is a friend that stands in my way, the friend is an enemy. If it is a gift that stands between us, that gift is an enemy. It may be an ambition, it may be a victory in the past, it may even be a defeat which still overwhelms me—any of these allowed to stand between the Lord and myself becomes an enemy and may keep me from further knowledge of God.
Have you had any part in this cheapening of the gospel by making God your servant? Have you allowed leanness to come to your soul because you have been expecting that God would come around with a basket giving away presents?
Perhaps some of us have a tendency to think of God standing around and tossing dimes to the children as John D. Rockefeller used to do. Can it be true that Christian believers are engaged in scrambling for those shiny, new dimes and then write a tract about it, such as “I Found a Shiny Dime and It Had the Image of God on It!”
Brethren, let’s not try to compare anything like that with the deep and satisfying knowledge of God Himself. Know Him! Go on to know Him! Then, if anyone comes to quote Scriptures and argue that your experience is all wrong, you can reply, “You are a good expositor—but I happen to know my Lord, and I love Him just for Himself!”
This is all that the Lord desires for us—and it is in this that we fulfill the purpose for which He created us!
—From I Talk Back to the Devil by A.W. Tozer