Week 9 Wednesday

Owning It All

Today’s scripture selection: Psalms 24-26

Key verses: Psalm 24:1-2

 

     In today’s society there is a very popular game.  It’s called “So how much you got?”

     Well, it’s not an actual game – at least not one you can play on a board or on the internet.  But it’s very real – in fact – it “consumes” a lot of people, if you pardon the pun.

     Consumerism is alive and well, even in an ailing economy.  Even with many out of work, and still more having given up even the search for a job, somehow, miraculously, the malls are full and people are spending money like always.  The only sense I can make of it is that people must be putting an awful lot of their purchases on plastic.

     Well, I’m no monk.  I haven’t taken a vow of poverty.  In fact, I tend to think money and possessions are not necessarily good or evil – they are just neutral tools – which can be used to God’s glory or to your own.

     Which leads us to this small, very important reminder from the Psalms:

     “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it, for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”

     Oops.  All that stuff I thought I owned? It turns it out belongs to God, just as I do.

     Now that can be taken as good news or bad news, depending on your perspective.  You can feel yourself wanting to argue and point out how hard you have worked for what you have, etc.  Or you can realize that by God giving you life, and by sustaining you by his grace, he actually has a pretty good claim to anything – including you and yours.

     The good news is that this loving, empowering God, who created you and sustains you isn’t a greedy miser.   God is generous, and is pleased for us to have so much – even if materially our holdings are sometimes smaller than we wish.

     So try and stay away from the game called “So how much you got?”  Don’t get caught up in consumer fever.  Just be thankful for all the blessings God has and will bestow on you.

     After all, God’s blessings are so much more than what the mall has for sale this, or any week.

 

 

Prayer:   Lord, you own it all, even my life.  Use me to your glory and for your holy purposes.  AMEN.