Taking Hold of What’s Yours

I once heard a story about a daughter helping her mother. As a surprise, the daughter cleaned her mother’s house, freshened old spaces, and for a grand finale, purchased her a new mattress.

Excited to reveal the transformation, the daughter escorted her mom through the home, room by room. They reached the bedroom, and the mother’s face turned white. Frantic, she asked her daughter where the original mattress had gone, desperate to get it back.

Unable to make sense of the situation, the daughter assured her mother of the gift. But the mother shook her head and confessed – the mattress had been filled with cash.

Our stomachs sink when hearing a story like this. Maybe we relate with a similar experience, or maybe we imagine the urgency for getting such a mattress back. But maybe we can also relate in a spiritual way. Like the mother had a wealth of monetary riches available to her, we also have a wealth of spiritual riches available to us. 

When God created the world, he first created spaces: light, sea and sky, earth and vegetation. Then he filled the spaces: sun and moon, fish and birds, man and animal. We see the same pattern with man. God declares a purpose, and he creates someone to fill the purpose.

“God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth’… So God created man in his own image… And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing,’” (Genesis 1:26-28, emphasis added). 

God decides man would have dominion, then he creates man to have dominion. He makes a declaration and sends it forth.

David writes of this in Psalms, “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16). First God creates our days, then he creates us to fill the days. We have purpose before we’re even born.

But the Great Deceiver and nature of sin leave us distracted and doubting. We spend excessive hours on comforts and pleasure. We question if doing God’s will really matters or if we’re even living it. And somehow, we convince ourselves that God’s kindness isn’t for us. 

However, alongside the purposes God has for us was also the plan for redemption. “(Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world,” (1 Peter 1:20). God knew we’d need help, he knew we’d need rescue. And he was prepared to satisfy our needs before we were born. 

When we confess this name Jesus, we are brought into God’s kingdom and into sonship. We are made one with Christ and receive his Spirit. 

We are blessed. Chosen. Holy and blameless. Adopted. Sons through Christ. Redeemed. Forgiven. Lavished with grace. Given an inheritance.
We can cry out “Father!” to the Lord and know we are heard because we are known. Formed. Knitted together. Fearfully and wonderfully made. [1]

This is the cash within our mattress. 

Like money gives us temporary status, ability and privilege, the identity we have in Christ gives us that eternally. We have a place in his kingdom that we can’t ever lose, direct access to the King of all kings and favor with the Almighty. 

This value is designed to be brought together. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it,” (1 Corinthians 12:27) Paul writes to the church at Corinth. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good… All these (gifts) are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills,” (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11, emphasis added). 

We all have unique purpose, and in Christ, we each receive the Spirit of the Lord, the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead [2]. It’s our job and honor to use what is available to us. 

As the story goes, the mother’s mattress was gone. They were unable to recover it. The mother never got to use her wealth. 

The same is true for us. At some point, our time here will be done. What a victory for Satan if we never use the fortune God has given us. Every day is filled with opportunity. Whatever we’re sitting on, whatever our talents, may we get off our mattress and recklessly spend what’s inside. We know, we’ll never run short. 

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[1] Ephesians 1:1-11, Galatians 4:6-7, Psalm 139:1-18
[2] Romans 8:11

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“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” – Jeremiah 1:5 

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10