The Lie of Ownership

Vernel Samuel

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” – Matthew 6:24

The word mammon here means property. You cannot serve God and serve stuff. How many people are living their lives for the stuff they want or the stuff they own? They work for things. Fight for things. Stay up at night concerned about things they own. At the close of 2018, I was led to go on a study about the idea of ownership. And the more I searched, the more I realized the Bible doesn’t endorse ownership at all.  No man owns anything. Anything you own, owns you. It’s the deception of attachment. You will end up serving what you think you own. No! God bought you in His act of redemption on the Cross so you can know you are now owned by Him. We are not owners but stewards.

Psalm 24:1 “The Earth is the Lord and the fulness thereof.” 

Everything in the Earth including the Earth itself belongs to the Lord.

What is a steward?
Stewards – managers of what belongs to another
Stewardship – the responsible management of God-given resources
We get to manage what God gives us for the duration of our lives. At the end of our lives, we will give an account to God explaining what we did with everything He has given us and be judged accordingly!
Stewardship is a partnership between God and man to bring Heaven to Earth in every area of life. Because nothing is yours and everything belongs to the Lord, then i must understand what God’s intentions are for what He has given in order to steward it effectively. As stewards of His properties, i must come back to God and ask Him “what do you want me to do with what you have given me”? It’s not my will but your will that needs to be done.
I must know who I am and whose I am to walk down the path of stewardship. This is the starting point.
How does this thought cause us to live more intentionally today? 

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