Give God What Belongs to Him

They brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew 22:15-22 (NKJV)

God gives you freedom. He gives you freedom to imagine, freedom to be inspired, freedom to aspire, and freedom to go about testing assumptions. In fact, He supports this freedom so much so that He infuses grace in it, power to it, anointing over it.

God supports the time you focus on you—the things you do for you, the thoughts and opinions and convictions you generate through your own experiences, your interactions with others, your upbringing, your exposure to thought leaders and the sharing of their opinions, and the traditions that help to frame all of this.

These things are what you pay to Caesar.

But before you give your life to those things, remember why God gives you freedom. God always expects that you pay Him what you owe Him, which is prioritization of the Word of God in your life over everything else. Pay Him what you owe Him by holding Scripture in your life as the highest authority over everything else. Pay Him what you owe Him with thoughts filtered through the Holy Spirit instead of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration filtered through your convictions.

These things are what you pay to God.