Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.
– Job 41:11
Oh, this potent reminder from God to Job is something that every single one of us needs to remember on a daily basis, in all that we do and all the more so as a result of the gospel of Jesus. So the reality, the truth that God is making clear here to Job is that Job, along with every single thing in creation, belongs to God. That God is the Owner, the Creator, the Author and the Sovereign Ruler of everything. And wow, the tentacles of this just go in so many different directions that we could spend hours talking about, days, really our lives just thinking about it. But let it land in a fresh way on your heart right now.
Job 41:11 teaches us that we belong to a wise, loving, powerful, just, and righteous God.
Not just all creation belongs to God. Like yes, look out and everything you see in creation, they realize it all belongs to Him. “Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine,” Job 41:11 says. And included in that is you. You belong to God. I belong to God. And wow, praise God for who He is, imagine if we belonged to an evil ruler. Imagine if we belonged to an unjust creator, we would have no hope in our lives. We would be miserable.
Praise God that we belong to an all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful, completely just and righteous God. It is good that we belong to God. And it is good that we remember that on a daily basis and all the more so as a result of the gospel that, to use language from 1 Corinthians 6, as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross, His resurrection from the grave, through our faith in Jesus, we have been bought with a price. We belong to God. We’re in relationship with God.
So, 1 Corinthians 6 says, “So glorify God with your body.” Yes, if we belong to God, that means we live to glorify God all day long. So, let this verse just totally transform your perspective on your life today and tomorrow. God, help us to live today with the realization at every moment that we belong to You. Oh God, we say this, well, one, confessing it before You, that we belong to You. That we are not the captains of our own lives, our own fate. No, we belong to You.
Job 41:11 reminds us that we are not our own.
You are sovereign over us. We are creatures, You are our Creator and You own us. And we praise You, that You own us. We praise You specifically for sending Jesus to die on a cross for our sins so that we might be saved from our sin and restored to relationship with You, to enjoy You and all your love, to walk with You as those who belong to You.
So God, help us to think today, to desire today, to speak today, to act today, to love others today as the people who belong to You, who realize that our lives are not our own. Help us to turn aside from our ways all day long today and help us to trust in Your ways, to follow Your ways. God, help us to live all day today with this recognition and realization that we belong to You. Lord, all the peoples of the world belong to You, including the people around us.
God, help us to point people around us today to the One to whom they belong to. Invite them to experience the wonder of relationship with You through Jesus. God, we pray for people who’ve never heard the name or the truth about Jesus.
Prayer for the Yerwa Kanuri People
Lord, for the Yerwa Kanuri people of West Africa, including Cameroon, God, we pray for this people group of almost 9 million and 0.02% followers of Jesus.
God, we pray they belong to You, oh God. They’re under the whole heaven. They’re yours. And Jesus, You have paid the price for their sin. We pray that You would bring them into the family. We pray for the Yerwa Kanuri people to be reached with the good news of your grace, that they might experience the wonder of a relationship with You as their Creator and their Savior. In Jesus, may it be so. We pray all this according to Your Word in Job 41:11 as Your children who are so glad we belong to You. Help us to live like it today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
