Fear No Fear

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8, MEV). When we own things, we can do what we want with them. When we do NOT own things, we cannot do what we want with them. When we have a mortgage on a house or we’re paying off a vehicle, we do not own them outright. We have a responsibility to steward them so that they maintain (more or less) their value. Once we have paid them off, we have them. Feels good, doesn’t it? It can take a short time and it can take a long time. Once it is done, we are free. We can sell it. Give it away. Or keep it. The point is that we are free agents. God asked us to live in a way where we owe nothing on anything. Simple, but not always easy. The world system certainly isn’t geared to life like that. Why does God want us off that system? Why does God want us to be so far from lack or poverty that we don’t owe anything on the stuff we have in our lives? Because it enables us to have a greater reach. We have more opportunities to bless those around us. We have more chances for God to prove to someone that He can manoeuvre any and everything to the benefit of His children. For all you know, someone in the mall you just entered has been praying for a car just like yours. If you own it, God can tell you to give it to the woman in the blue shirt on the second floor sipping a coffee in the food court. You could be cooperating with God in turning their lives completely around. You can’t do that if you don’t own that car. God’s instruction to us to live owning everything – which cannot be done without trusting in Jesus – is an instruction to make ourselves more available to Him. More available to bless others. That’s why we need to grow spiritually before we can grow materially (3 John 2). So that our hearts are in the right place to HAVE and be ready to FREELY GIVE. So that we have a greater range of opportunity available to us. It truly is better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). To Bless because we are Blessed (Philippians 2:3-4; Genesis 12:2). That sounds like a pretty good way to live, doesn’t it? What a GOOD God!