Biblical Stewardship: God Owns it All

Hello, my name is Ron Blue. We’re talking about stewardship over a series here. Last time, we talked about what stewardship meant. But stewardship, biblical stewardship, begins with the understanding and the belief that God owns it all. Now, why did I say belief? Because I know intellectually, we would probably all say, “Well, sure, I know that God owns it all.” But, what you really believe will ultimately determine your behavior. So, if you really believe that God owns it all, there are some implications to that.

One of those implications is that He can take whatever He wants, whenever He wants to, for whatever purpose He wants it. In other words, I hold everything that He has entrusted me with: my time, my talents, my treasure, my relationships, the Truth that He’s given me, my family, my business. I hold everything that I have been entrusted with, with an open hand, meaning that He can take whatever He wants out of this hand at any time. By the same token, He can put in whatever He wants at any time.

I was counseling with a young man just recently, and he wanted to start his own business. I said that the beginning point of starting your own business is understanding that God owns that business, and you are a steward of that business, even though it has not even been created yet. He can put in the clients that He wants, He can put in the resources that He wants, but He can also take out whatever He wants.

A lot of people have gotten really upset about the stock market decline, and rightly so, because they have lost a lot of value. But the reality is that if God owns it all, all He is doing is taking back some of His resources. In other words, it’s okay. It doesn’t feel any different, but it’s still okay, because God owns it all. Once I believe that, once I REALLY believe that, then I have some real freedom in everything that I do, because I don’t have anything to lose. I have no fear of loss, because it’s all His. I’m going to challenge you to think about the implications of God owning it all. I’m going to challenge you to list everything that you own, and give that ownership back over to the Lord, because the reality is, He owns it.

Click here for the October 23, 2009 Blog Entry