GPS Guide – November 19, 2019
CHEERFUL GIVER
Tuesday
Read: Leviticus 25:23, Psalm 50:9-12
23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. ” (NIV Leviticus 25:23)
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,
10 for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and the insects in the fields are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it. (NIV Psalm 50:9-12)
Study: Israel in Jesus’ day (like most countries in the world today) had a few very rich people, and many who were very poor. Jesus was not against wealth, but he was against giving wealth a higher priority than God. He challenged many of the rich, notably those who were religious leaders, telling them it is impossible to serve God and wealth. Those who usually saw all their wealth as a sign of God’s favor sneered. Jesus wouldn’t back down, saying the things that impress human beings often offend God. Leviticus 25 underscored one of Israel’s basic beliefs: God was the true owner of all of the land, of all the earth (Psalm 24:1). So the law strikingly told all Israelites that they were “immigrants and foreign guests” on God’s land. In what ways can seeing yourself as an immigrant on God’s land, a steward using someone else’s property, shape your inward and outward responses to all your fellow “immigrants”? Based on passages like today’s in Psalm 50, everything is God’s. How might it alter your life to take that seriously? Would you drive God’s car the same way you do “yours”? Would you watch different things on God’s TV or computer? Would you spend God’s money any differently than you do “yours”?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me keep growing in the sense of responsibility I bring to stewarding the portions of your world that you entrust to my care. Amen.