God hath made all things for Himself-- Prov. 16:4
We are all of us jealous of what belongs to ourselves. We resent it if any one interferes with it, or deprives us of any portion of it. Yet no one owns anything by a title so absolute as that by which God is the Lord and owner of all creatures in the universe. My body and my soul are His; everything I possess is His; every action, every thought belongs to Him. He has given all these in charge to me to use for Him. Do I do so?
God is moreover a God infinite in knowledge and in power. His all-seeing eye overlooks nothing, forgets nothing, passes nothing by. No one shall escape who takes anything from Him, and does not give Him His due. God will not forget the ill use that men make of His gifts, though they themselves soon forget it. Have I not therefore cause to tremble when I think how often I have behaved as if I were my own master, independent of God?
Yet in the end I must recognize God's ownership; if I do not do so willingly and with joyful loyalty, I shall have to do so unwillingly and in misery and pain. Everything I have taken from God and appropriated to myself will have to be given back to Him. I shall have to pay the penalty for each misuse of what was entrusted to me. How much wiser and happier to recognize Him now in all things as my Lord and Master!
Offer yourself to God with loyal submission as your God and Lord.
Rev. R. F. Clarke, SJ, The Great Truths
