Things can be scarier at night sometimes! On a dark, cool night a while back, my dog went nuts and I eventually realized she was barking at a person sitting in that spot behind our house! A complete stranger thought he should be able to spend the night right there a while back, and it wouldn’t have been half as scary if I had realized he was there before walking up close to him! He’d been walking through our area and decided that was where he wanted to sleep. We tried to help him, but he got angry and refused to cooperate and eventually had to move on. I found it interesting that he kept quoting the first part of Psalms 24:1: “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof.” To him that meant he should be able to help himself to any part of the outdoors he wanted because God owns the earth.
I don’t bring this up to criticize him (I wish we could have helped him more), but it does offer a great reminder of a common and dangerous mindset we can all fall into. Psalm 24:1 does start out “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof;” but it goes on to say, “the world, and they that dwell therein.” We (“they that dwell therein”) belong to God, and if we recognize His authority over our lives first, we’ll be ready to use the things He gives us for His glory and purposes, not our own.
We might be wondering why God doesn’t trust us with more, and He might be wondering why we don’t properly use what He’s already given us. The earth truly is the LORD’s, and that should inspire us to trust Him, join Him, and be a part of His plan and purpose.
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