A long time ago when I was around 5 I was riding with my dad when he stopped at an old service station. You know the type; back when they filled your car, cleaned the windshield, and checked the oil. My dad and I had gone into the station which was pretty much two bays and a small office with cans of oil stacked against the wall. While Dad was talking to the man I noticed what looked like a fish bowl full of bubble gum. You know, the rectangle ones individually wrapped with a cartoon inside. I think the name was Bazooka. Anyway, I took one, unwrapped it, and put it in my mouth. We left and when we got about a mile from the station my dad noticed I was chewing gum and he asked me where I got it. I told him and he turned the car around and went back to the station. He made me confess to the man about taking the gum and tell him I was sorry. The man would have probably given me the gum for free since it only cost a penny or two, but Dad wanted me to learn a lesson about taking something that wasn’t mine. It had an impact because I vividly remember it to this day. I wonder how many times we take what belongs to God for ourselves. It may be our time, talent, or resources, but we take it and use it for our own pleasure. If we get right down to it we belong to God, everything we have, and everything we are. We have been bought at a great price. I am sure we haven’t seen it as stealing from God, but if it belongs to God and we waste it, it isn’t a good thing. When we do steal from God the Holy Spirit will turn us right around, lead us to repent, and make things right. That’s a good thing. Is there anything you are taking that belongs to God? If so, let’s be quick to repent and change for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Malachi 3:8-10 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.