Genesis 14:22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth.
God Owns it All
We tend to think the more we own the less we worry. Yet it is often the exact opposite. The more you own, the more you have to worry over. For instance, it is one thing to enjoy a weekend on the lake, but it is another thing to have the responsibility of that boat. I have a friend who says that it is better to have a friend who has a boat then to have a boat yourself because you can have all the enjoyment of the boat without the burden of possession. This is a lesson Abraham learned the hard way.
Genesis 12:10 says, “And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.” Now there is nothing wrong with trying to be filled when you are hungry, but it is evident from the story that Abram was not living by faith when he went down to Egypt. It was certainly not faith when he was dishonest about his relationship to Sarah. His decision was based upon the need to survive and to get food.
Genesis 13:6 says that after Abram moved out of Egypt with his nephew Lot “the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.” In one passage we find that they were living in a land that was without food and in the next passage we find that they had so many possessions that the land couldn’t bear them both.
In both cases Abram made decisions based on the fact that he owned possessions or needed possessions, but possessions are not the most important things in life. Later, Abram says to a king who wished to give him a lot of spoil, “I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.” Abram was not going to be indebted to a man because he knew that God is the Great Provider.
If God owns things, then God can provide things. It is evident that Abram had stopped worrying about his possessions, and instead was focused on the fact that God is the Great Possessor. Possessor equals provider. If I possess everything, then I’ve got to provide everything. If God owns everything, then I can trust Him to provide. You will not live a life of faith until you realize that God owns it all.
How wonderful to live life free of worry and anxiety over possessions. Family, integrity, and your relationship with God, to name just a few, are so much more important than possessions. Abram’s dependence was upon God because he realized God provides because God owns. The more I put into the hand of God to possess, the more I can trust the God that I serve to provide for me.