By Pastor Danny Kirk.
In 1984, my wife and I purchased an old stone cabin that borders the Meramec State Park in Missouri. It has been a fond get-away and a home-away-from-home for our children. A couple of Christmases ago, my granddaughter gave us a present of a wooden sign that simply says, “Papa’s Cabin,” and I hung it with pride above the main door. My grandson, who realized that this sign of ownership exists in the cabin, has reminded me with great passion, on several occasions, that the main home we live in does not belong to me, but to Nana! For him, no matter how much I try to explain, the house belongs to his Nana, and the cabin to his Papa. There can be no dual ownership!
I must confess that every time I look up and see that sign (Papa’s Cabin), I think about the following scriptures found in Proverb 24:1-2:
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.
For He laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.
My family has enjoyed this gift of the cabin for nearly 32 years, but it does not belong to me, nor to my wife. It belongs to God, and we have only been stewards of that gift. Through the years, we have allowed other people to live there, to spend vacation time in that cabin, to dry out from alcoholism, to have a honeymoon, to hide away and write a book, and the list goes on and on. We have invited others to enter its doors and spend a portion of their life within its walls because we felt the place will always belong to God and He should be allowed to direct us to how it would be use to benefit others. The Creator God is the ultimate Owner. It is not Papa’s cabin, nor Nana’s house, but all things belong to God!
Today, I want you to think about your possessions – the things that you have worked hard for and they have both great sentimental and material value. How tightly do you hold onto these things? Who is the true owner of the things under your control? If God were to ask you to share that gift with someone else, could you say, “Yes! Yes, God… it has always belong to You!”?