Day Eighty

EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS GOD’S

The earth and everything on it belong to the LORD. The world and its people belong to him.

—PSALM 24:1 CEV

We are born with a “Mine!” mentality. Our stuff, our money, our talents, our résumés, our status as humans . . . all of it shapes our identity.

But God gives us a new identity in Christ. Now we are His. We are stewards of His stuff. So your time, your money, all your resources, even your story—it’s God’s, my friend.

Living with that understanding takes courage because the natural thing is for us to want to claim everything—mine, mine, mine! We want credit for and control of the good things in our lives, and we want to decide how to live based on what we want.

Living for self? That’s easy. Living like everything you have is God’s (because it is)? That’s brave.

I didn’t write about my singleness for a long time. And honestly, often I still feel the pull to be silently single. It would be easier. I wouldn’t have to tell some of the embarrassing or sad personal stories you’ve read throughout my books, many of them happening in the singleness that I wear every day. But as much as I willingly surrendered to the voice of God that told me to use my story to encourage others, I know this is going to hurt sometimes. And I am not strong enough to write about this.

Living for self? That’s easy. Living like everything you have is God’s (because it is)? That’s brave.

But I’m still typing. The truth is, I’m doing this through no strength of my own. Trust me. The inner Annie is crying uncle and begging me to stop and walk away and just. Give. Up.

It’s God in me, gently asking me if I’m willing to be brave for you and share this story of mine, this story that belongs to Him, like I’m asking you to be brave for others.

If it is my time to talk about being single, then it is the time that will bring God the most glory and us the most good.

So what is it for you? Have you been too scared to share your testimony of redemption because you don’t want your secret sins out there? Have you been too scared to give your resources away because you’re afraid you won’t have what you “need” to do what you want to do?

Everything you have is God’s. God has been generous to you. Even if you are unsatisfied or hurt or living through a season of struggle, are you brave enough to believe that God has been generous to you even if you don’t have everything you want?

He has, friend. It’s all His. So be brave enough to steward everything you have in a way that displays God’s great generosity.

BE BRAVE: Make a list of all the gifts God has trusted you to steward—time, money, and so forth. No amount is too small. Look at all you have to offer the world!