Own To Love, Own To Share

Good Morning!! We all want to possess things. Children learn to say "mine" way before "yours" or "ours." Even as adults, we want to say my stuff, my house, or my money. And we don't stop there, we even own the people around us,...it's my wife, my husband, my kids and my friends. As a society we are so guilty of obsessing over possessing. Still, ownership is not all bad.

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.—Leviticus 25:23, 24 (ESV)

In Leviticus 25, we see that God expected Israelites to own property in the promised land of Canaan. Ownership can be good in that it can teach responsibility and hard work. The danger comes when we say "mine" as though that’s all there is to it. In the end, we all are renters. "You are sojourners," God says. We’re just passing through.

Knowing that everything is God’s gives us freedom.

Lord, the earth is yours and everything in it. Help us to share freely what you’ve given us. Amen.

"God speaks to those who take time to listen,...and He listens to those who take time to pray."
(OUR DAILY BREAD, Nov. 16, 2010)