God Owns It All

The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. — Psalm 24:1

Consider for a moment your possessions. Actually, we can possess nothing — no property and no person — along the way. It is God who owns everything, and we are but stewards of His property during the brief time we are on earth. Everything that we see about us that we count as our possessions only comprises a loan from God, and it is when we lose sight of this all-pervading truth that we become greedy and covetous.

When we clutch an object or a person and say, “This thing is mine,” we are forgetting that we can’t take it with us. This does not mean earthly riches are a sin — the Bible does not say that. The Bible makes it clear that God expects us to do the best we can with the talents, the abilities, the situations with which life endows us. But there is a right way and a wrong way to acquire money and a right way and a wrong way to achieve power.

Choose God’s way and hold possessions lightly.

How can you think about possessions so that you hold them lightly?

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A Christian View of Materialism

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. — 1 Timothy 6:10

The Christian attitude should prevail in the matter of economics. Jesus said a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Money is a good slave but a bad master. Property is to be used, enjoyed, shared, given, but not hoarded. Paul said that the love of money was the “root of all… evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Covetousness shackles its devotee and makes him its victim. It hardens the heart and deadens the noble impulses and destroys the vital qualities of life.

Beware of covetousness in every phase and form! All of us should keep ourselves from it through vigilance, prayer, self-control, and discipline. Life is not a matter of dollars and cents, houses and lands, earning capacity and financial achievement. Greed must not be allowed to make man the slave of wealth.

• The Christian, above all others, should realize that we come into life with empty hands — and it is with empty hands that we leave it.

Do you feel money is more your servant or your boss?

Excerpted with permission from Peace for Each Day by Billy Graham, copyright Billy Graham Literary Trust.

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Your Turn

Everything belongs to God. Everything. Whatever we have is just on loan to us! Let’s hold things and people lightly and be grateful and generous with what has been entrusted to us. ~ Devotionals Daily