Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Friday, March 15, 2019

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'"¹

John Ruskin wrote, "God has lent us the earth for our life. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us and those whose names are already written in the book of creation, as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do, or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits that are in our power to bequeath."

We know that it isn't God's goal to save the world as it now is, but to save people from it. And we know that in the end times God is going to create a new earth and a new heaven.² In the meantime, however, that doesn't give any person or nation the right to damage the earth, because God has entrusted the keeping of it and everything in it to mankind. We are therefore responsible for doing just that. The world is not ours. We are to be caretakers of it, for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."³

I'm not suggesting that we be obsessive and/or fanatical in this area as some are today, but that we all be responsible.

Suggested prayer: "Thank you, God, for the beauty of the earth and all that is therein, and, as a citizen of heaven, please help me to be a responsible citizen of earth. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Genesis 1:26 (NIV).
2. Revelation 21:1.
3. Psalm 24:1 (NIV).

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