Ownership Debunked

2 Corinthians 9.10-11 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

The grace of God serves as the foundation that moves us into this next way of living and conducting our lives. He said, He who supplies the seed is the one who also supplies the bread. So God is breaking down the myth of ownership. Somebody says, "Hey I baked a loaf of bread...Well where'd you get the bread...it's wheat bread so I got it from wheat..Where'd you get the wheat?...I had to plant a seed...Where'd you get the seed?...Uhhh Aha! It's all mine." So God is murdering the myth of ownership. Grace is the foundation of our generosity, but that foundation is built on the idea that we are stewards and not owners. Plainly, we don't own anything; we simply manage and steward what we've been given. This is a fundamental shift in your thinking. The grace of God shows us the mercy of God and in turn we see ourselves as stewards. What do you have that isn't His? What do you have that He hasn't given to you? What do you have that God cannot rightly and justly stand over and say, "That's Mine"?

Listen all that you have...your aptitudes, your resilience, your business acumen, all of these things were given to you by God, for God. We are stewards and not owners and everything you posess you've been given to steward, to be a manager of and to oversee, not own.  

Truth is, you are only relatively a few years away from dying, and being shoved back into the earth. I know we don't like to think like that, but its true. You can do all the Wii Fit you want to and the eating healthy and such...you gonna die...and they will do a poor job of making you look normal and then you'll be lowered into a dark hole in the ground. That is what is ahead for you and for me...You won't avoid it unless X returns, and at the rate we're going, you'd best be praying for someone else to do your work to that end.  Point is, in that moment, the myth of ownership vanishes. Presently, it's hard to see that. We own this, it's ours. That's a myth.

What's funny is, we hate in our kids how we act towards God when it comes to stewardship. Test me on it right now. Today, go to the mall and buy your kid whatever game they want. X-box, Wii, or whatever. Let them pick it out. Carry the box to the cashier and give them the money to pay for it. Let them hold onto it in the car on the way home. Pull up to the house that you own, then unpack the game and plug it in to your TV in your living room. Get it all set up, and let them play. Go into the other room and do whatever you want. Come back after you hear them having a very good time with the new game and say, Hey, can daddy play? More than likely you'll hear something like, "It's mine". At my house this is what would follow...Yours? Nothing is yours...you own nothing...clothes, etc.

My point is that loving parents engage that in their children, don't they? No loving parent just hopes it works out and leaves the room at that place. You'd sit down and try to explain to them graciousness, generosity, and sharing. We discipline, shape and mold our children.

But what they are doing is the same thing that we do to the Lord when you look at your stuff and say, that's mine.  God is saying, No it isn't, I just got that for you. Well it's mine because you gave it to me...I know...I gave it to you for a reason...Well I don't care about the reason, it's mine. So the way our kids act that makes us nuts is often how we act with God, specifically in terms of ownership. For a believer in Christ, we understand that all that we have is His, that it isn't ours. 

This creates an unbelievable amount of freedom. Cause now, what I drive, doesn't define me.  I don't feel better or worse about myself dependent upon what I drive. My home doesn't define me. It doesn't make me feel better or worse. I'm now a steward of those things. I use those things for the ministry of reconciliation. 

I pray today that you can see that you don't own a thing. It all belongs to Him.  I'll be back soon to continue with more thoughts on you and your money.  God bless and keep you. Holla!