September 21st, 2021 – Tuesday Late Afternoon
“…for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.” ~Genesis 13:15
“He blessed him and said,
‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.'” ~Genesis 14:19
It’s comical how possessive we can get. Sometimes its people – like our children, our parents, our siblings, etc. Sometimes its “stuff” – like momentos, toys, cars, houses, etc. Sometimes its our money – like how much we give, how much we spend, how much we save, etc. Sometimes its our talents and skills – like the ability to shoot a basketball from mid-court, the skill of accounting, the talent of music or problem-solving, etc. And, sometimes its our actual land property. The reason why it is comical is because none of it really belongs to us; whatever we have we have been entrusted with – called to stewardship by the Possessor of heaven and earth.
Think about it for a bit… While it is easy to see that we had no choice in regards to our family or our natural abilities, even the money in our bank accounts doesn’t truly belong to us. (FYI, it doesn’t belong to the bank or to the government, either.) The reason why is because even if I earned that money through hard, manual labor I still didn’t provide my body with the strength to work. Realistically, if we break everything down, every material thing we have and every physical ability we possess didn’t originate with us, nor is it truly ours. Rather, it all came from the hand and design of the LORD Most High, the Creator and Sustainer of everything.
In the above passages, we see the reality of this in two different situations. The first is in regards to the LORD’s promise to give the land around Abram to him and his descendants forever. (This came on the heels of Abram giving his nephew Lot the choice of where Lot wanted to take his large estate; after Lot chose the best land and departed, the LORD gave all of the land to Abram – the best land included.) The second passage comes after the LORD used Abram to rescue his nephew Lot (and many others) from the captivity they had been taken into; Melchizedek blessed Abram here while rightly attributing the blessing and praise to the LORD. In the first passage we see that the LORD gives to whom He chooses, and in the second we are reminded of the authority that He possesses that gives Him the right to do so.
It is not different today. As already mentioned above, everything we have and everything we don’t have ultimately belongs to the LORD Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth. This is true regardless of whether we acknowledge Him or not, but, for those of us who do know Him and love Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the vantage point of knowing that He has our best interest in mind and that His glory is the final (and best) factor in how He manages what He possesses. This final part IS the best part; we get to steward the LORD God’s resources by the power of His Spirit and for His highest glory, while resting in the fact that He is orchestrating it all for our highest good.
So… Are you rejoicing in the LORD Most High who is the Possessor of heaven and earth? Are you living a life of contented gratefulness in response to His over-arching goodness towards the sons of men? Are you laying hold of everything that has been given to you in Christ Jesus? This isn’t a message of “name it and claim it”, but the right response to the understanding that He does indeed hold the whole world (and heaven) in His hands (see 2 Peter 1:2-4). We may suffer want and die miserable (from a worldly perspective) deaths, but we can rejoice that nothing is for naught in Him. Let us live no longer as defeated, poor, and hopeless curmudgeons; rather, may we shine as bright lights for His glory – carefully stewarding what He has entrusted to us for His honor.