CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, May 14, 2023 – We own nothing but our free will.

Our body isn’t ours. Our soul isn’t ours. None of our material belongings are ours.

Everything belongs to God EXCEPT our free will. He’s made our will entirely ours.

It’s our one and only possession.

When the truth of that statement sinks in, when you understand that the device that you’re reading this blog on doesn’t belong to you (even if you bought it), life is simplified. Whether you have this or that thing doesn’t really matter because even if you do have this or that thing in your possession, it doesn’t belong to you. It’s on loan from God.

God owns all of creation. He made it, he owns it, and he decides who gets to use it. That seat your sitting on? God’s. That bed you slept in last night? God’s. The food you ate yesterday? God’s. All God’s. God owns everything and everyone, except for their free will.

I’m grateful to God for what he lends to me for my use during my time on Earth. It’s important that we be grateful for what God gives us rather than to complain about what we don’t have or to whine for something better. I used to complain and whine. It was almost my default. I’d look around me and be dissatisfied because I would look through the eyes of dissatisfaction rather than through the eyes of gratitude. God can’t work through dissatisfaction. God can’t work through complaints and whining. He works through gratitude. I had to learn that the hard way, but it was a lesson well worth learning, and I thank God for that.

So now I’m grateful by default. That’s how I get happy. No matter what my circumstances, I thank God. That simple gesture of thanking God brings me such profound joy that I can’t stop thanking God – I thank him for my circumstances, whether good or bad, and when he floods me with joy for my gratitude, I thank him for the joy, which then further increases my joy. The more grateful we are, the more God’s Spirit flows through us, and the more joy we feel.

Our feeling of joy is the presence of God’s Spirit.

So take a moment to look around you right now. Look at what you have and look at what other people have and realize that everything, whether yours or theirs, belongs to God. Why waste your time and energy trying to accumulate more of what ultimately belongs to God? Better to be grateful for what God’s blessed you with and be satisfied with that.

Better to spend your time and energy storing up treasures in Heaven. Because even though our one and only possession here on Earth is our free will, in Heaven we’ll have as many treasures as we want, and for all eternity.

Better to work toward that.