Ownership

Lately, I have told the young moms in our Bible study that when their kids leave for college, of all the things they take with them, there needs to be personal ownership in their relationship with God. They may have the behaviors down pat, or can recite their litany of beliefs, but down at the core of their worldview, God must be real. It is not the worldview of their parents or church or youth director, but it is theirs.

I stand corrected.

It is not that we would “own” God, like we would own a car. It is not that He would be ours. But that God would own us – that we would be fully His. It is not a matter of grasping something and claiming it as a little child, “that’s MINE!” But a matter of letting go and letting God, as my good friend Linda Smith says. I no longer own my life, but lay it on the altar for Him to use for His kingdom. It is not the proverbial hiding Jesus in our hearts, but letting Him shine from within – indeed He is not part of our lives, but life itself, the very core of who we are.

“Power belongs to God, not to us…so that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh.” 2 Corinthians 4. 7,11