How does your behavior change if something isn’t yours? Do you treat that rental car the same as your car? How about renting an apartment? Do you treat the rental differently than the house you own?

Let’s say that someone gave you a million dollars to give away and the rules are that if you gave it all away, you would get another million to give away. As long as you gave it away, you would always have that million to give away. Would you give it all away? What if someone just gave you a million dollars as a gift. It is yours to keep and use however you want to. Would you give it away? Why or why not?

When we believe that we own stuff, the stuff starts controlling you. We feel a need to clutch, don’t we. What if something happened and we needed the money? How much freedom is that?

God owns everything and we are managers of His resources. His supply is endless. If we don’t own anything, shouldn’t we be generous with the resources we have? In fact, if His supply is endless, isn’t that endless freedom?

Something to think about…

I know that we have moved onto Debt this week but I want to quickly revisit our topic from last week.

Have you ever said something like this?

“I’d love to tithe more or give more to the church, but I just don’t have enough money left after I take care of all of my living expenses.”

I think that if I took a poll, almost all of us have used a phrase similar to that.

Psalms 24:1 says “The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains.” What part of “all it contains” do we not understand? How much does that leave you and me? Nothing! Nada! Zilch! Zip! Zero! The big goose egg! Not even a whiff! We don’t own anything so why do we think we can tell God that we don’t have enough left to give Him? Is it not all His anyway? Think about it. He only asks that we give him 10%. How hard is that? A dime for every dollar? If I asked you for a dime, would you miss it? Most likely not.

We have to change our stinkin’-thinkin’. Before we can make major changes in our financial lives, we have to first begin by accepting, and then putting in to practice, the idea that “God does own all”. (A topic for further discussion is that “Everything we do has spiritual meaning”)

When we acknowledge God’s ownership, every spending decision becomes a spiritual decision. No longer do we ask, “Lord, what do You want me to do with my money?” The question is restated, “Lord, what do You want me to do with Your money?” When we have this perspective, spending and saving decisions are equally as spiritual as giving decisions.