Ownership Comes at a Price

I love my pda. I have had my Tungsten T5 for about 2 1/2 years now and it is like a right arm to me. It is filled with study resources and tools and loads of pictures of the family and mission trips and schedule reminders. Between the device itself and the programs I have purchased and loaded it has COST ME PLENTY!! I am VERY careful to keep track of my T5. I have it with me almost all the time either in my fannypack (I am the nerdy local who looks like a tourist) or pocket. You might say I am JEALOUS over it. I am.

In 1Corinthians 6:19-20 we are reminded by the Apostle Paul that a great price has been paid for us by God and as a result we are not our own.

"...Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

Bought with a price. That price was the very life blood of God the Son, poured out in His unparalleled suffering of the cross. And that price was not paid so that I would be CALLED God's child and then live for myself, as though I still own the keys to the front door of my heart. No, the price has been paid so that I am no longer my own. The result? I am to live to glorify God in my body.

God rightfully owns me because He gave His Son for me. Therefore, He is jealous over me. He keeps close tabs on me. In fact, He is so jealous and so diligent to watch over me that He has taken upresidence WITHIN me! My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

All of this tells me:

• This temple of God's should be kept HOLY. My mind and body should be free from junk reading and eating. The visual images I load into my mind's pda do not delete. The extra pounds I am carrying on my body at this time do not give me more physical "curb appeal" to God or others. If God himself is in residence in my body, I should keep it more clean than when I have special guests in my home.
• God has the right to the first and last decisions in every area of my life. I am not my own. My time is not my own. My money is not my own. My body is not my own. My talents and gifts are not my own. The direction of my thoughts is not my own. The response to irritating drivers is not my own. Wow, nothing is my own to use as I will but as HE wills. Why? I have been bought with a price.
• What a glorious love God has loved me with! Why would He spend the life of His Son to purchase me? Why? The answer is not in me. The answer is in the infinitely loving heart of God. He is an extravagant Lover. And He is jealous over what He has paid dearly for. Keeping sight of this beyond comprehension love makes personal holiness and bowing to Lordship a whole different matter.

My OWNER is the GREAT LOVER of my soul. Ownership came at a price for Him.