Mine!

My son, Tyce, has learned a new word this week.  That word is "mine!".  We don't say that word around our house so I blame day care.

Everything now belongs to him apparently.

The T.V. remote, MINE!  The shoes I'm trying to put on, MINE!  The book I'm reading about ADHD, MINE!  The sharp knife I'm cutting chicken with, MINE!  His milk cup, MINE!  Okay, so that last one is his but we're also trying to teach him to ask nicely.

1st Corinthians 13:11(ESV) reads When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a name, I gave up childish ways.

There's a lot we can learn from the example my son has so graciously provided us with this week.

As followers of Christ I believe we frequently get caught in the "mine" trap.  We also live in a country and culture that emphasizes individual freedom, which makes it so easy to be "mine minded"  We look at out lives and we know God wants to do a work in us and has called us to live in a set apart way but we want to live life on our terms.  When we so that we stubbornly say, "mine!"

There are some other ways we fall in to the mine trap.  When we say we cannot worship to a particular style of music or we cannot worship because I didn't hear my favorite song we're claiming "mine".  Like the worship belongs to us.

We do that with our churches.  When our churches begin to change and the church we knew is reaching people we're unfamiliar with we can get caught up in mine.  Again, it's not ours to begin with.

Did you catch that?  It's not ours to begin with.

So whose is it?  Well, it's God's.  Our lives are God's, our church is God's, our worship is God's.

These things were bought with a price.  When Jesus died on the cross he paid the penalty we were supposed to pay.  The penalty of death.   Perhaps many of us need to take a moment and repent because even though we have been following Christ we've been trying to live life on our own terms.  Maybe we need to repent because we have made our church or our worship all about us than about Him.    As slaves to Christ we aren't allowed the freedom to be mine minded.

Let's stop and remember that this week.  Our lives belong to a just, gracious, loving, God who willingly laid down His life to pay the penalty for our sins so we could be reconciled to Him.