Tuesday, August 19, 2014

My Beautiful Life - Day 19


All That We Have Belongs to Him
We seem never to be satisfied with what we have—long hair or short hair, rich or poor, healthy or sick. Sometimes it's easy to forget all that we are already blessed with. But what a difference it makes when we realize that everything we have has been given to us by God! King David prayed, “Wealth and honor come from you … We give you thanks, and praise your glorious name … Everything comes from you” (1 Chronicles 29:12-14, NIV). We see wealth in terms of having an abundance of material or worldly things. The world tells us that riches consist of how many cars you own or how many square feet are in your house. When we get back to the Bible, however, we find that wealth is a lot more than money. Wealth is the sum total of all that God has given us. When we understand wealth as the gift of God, we realize that it comes from God and it all belongs to God. This is a very difficult attitude for the world to adopt. But the Bible makes it clear that God created everything, God sustains everything and God owns everything. Ultimately, everything we have is a gift from God. In His grace, God shares His property with us. In His grace, God shares the ability for you and me to make money in order to put food on our table and to clothe our families. It's all because of His amazing grace that we enjoy any of what He owns. Don't brag about how much God gives you or complain about how little He gives you. All good things are measured out from His hand just as we need them. Those who have smaller homes or more meager bank accounts may find they have much greater riches in other areas of life, if only they could see them with thankful eyes. Everything you have is God's gift to you. What you do with everything God gives you is your gift to Him. Be grateful for all that God has blessed you with.

1 Corinthians 4:7
For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

A Prayer for Today
Heavenly Father, help me to be grateful. Help me to find my fulfillment in You, and not things. I pray that my focus would continuously be on You so that I would not be discouraged because of what I don't have, but instead be thankful for what I do have. Thank You for sharing your many riches with me. Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. Please help me to be a good steward over everything I have.
Amen