So, whose is it anyway?
“Mine!” is often one of the earliest words we learn. If you hang around toddlers for very long, you’ll quickly find out they know ownership quite well, even if they can’t articulate it. Try taking that toy or bottle away! I can personally vouch that those strong ownership tendencies continue right into adulthood. We love our stuff — just ask the rich young ruler.
Ownership is a particularly important concept. It is both written in law and central to the functioning of effective economies. The owner of a possession or property determines how it is used. Generally, when we respect and acknowledge rightful ownership, life tends to run more smoothly…and we stay out of jail. However, when disputes over ownership arise, things can unravel quickly, and people can become tangled up in conflict.
Take a moment to think about your life — your personality, inherent talents and abilities, family of origin. Consider creation – the planet you inhabit, weather, a rising and setting sun. Now think about relationships, like your friends and associates, maybe a spouse and kids. And last but not least, our possessions — food, clothes, transportation, assets, and a myriad of other possible items. When you bring all these things together, you’ll find that they have something in common.
Directly or indirectly, they all have been given to us by God.
And guess what? He owns it all.
“The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein…” (Psalm 24:1). Abraham Kuyper said it well: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign overall, does not cry, Mine!”
So where does that leave us?
Well, I’m glad you asked! God has done something amazing. He has made us His creation caretakers, entrusting us to live for and use everything to glorify Him. We get to participate with God in the use of what He entrusts to us. In Genesis 1:28, God gives us dominion over the earth. The earth belongs to God, and everything He entrusts to us is to be used to His glory.
So, whose is it anyway? It’s God’s.
How, then, do we see ourselves? Are we managers of God’s property or controllers of our own stuff? The answer to this question makes a tremendous and eternal difference. When we acknowledge that everything is His, we begin to ask different questions.
“Why has He given me this?” 
“What does He want me to do with it?”
“Is there a need He has equipped me to meet and what am I doing about it?”
“How will He judge how I used His assets?”
God has been so generous to us, way beyond earthly possessions. Besides our existence and daily sustainment, He gave Himself up on the cross to rescue all who trust Him from sin and death. He has given Christians an eternal inheritance, kept in heaven! And in this life, He promises to meet our every need.
God is the perfect picture of a generous owner – loving, abundant, sacrificial, and endlessly giving. His provision for our needs is overflowing. He demonstrates the truth that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 24:35) and He invites us to share in the joy of that blessing.
Consequently, God is calling us all to the blessing of generosity – cheerfully and sacrificially, without compulsion. After all, we are giving what is not ours to start with. We are fulfilling the Gospel. We are laying up eternal treasures in heaven.
If your heart is cold, pray that God will warm it. If His Spirit is tugging at your heart to give, then do it. Don’t wait! As we give in faith, we can be confident that God will provide for our needs just as He promised in Matthew 6:25-33. Our abundance today supplies the needs of others, and God’s abundance will continue to supply us as we obey in faith. Paul writes, “and my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Perhaps your gifts now are intended to be part of how God supplies someone else’s need. Therefore, let’s continually encourage each other to enter into that joy together and anticipate all that God will do!
Prayer:
God, all I have is yours. I release my sense of “mine” to you. Take what is yours and equip me to use it however you guide, trusting you to meet my every need in Christ Jesus. Amen.
