The Tenant
Day 2—The Power of Being a Tenant
Are you struggling to release control? There is a reason. There is a history, a heritage, a family lineage that shaped that struggle. But it was not always this way. And there is freedom on the other side of understanding it. So let’s learn together.
Yesterday, we learned about the Owner.
Today, we discover the Tenant.
If God is the Owner, then we are not owners.
We are tenants.
And that one shift changes how we see life, purpose, success, calling, and identity.
The world says a tenant is powerless.
But anyone who has been a landlord knows this. A tenant is trusted.
A tenant lives inside the world God created (Genesis 1:1), on the land God planted (Genesis 2:8–9), under the authority God holds (Psalm 24:1; Daniel 2:21; Matthew 28:18), supported by the strength God supplies (Psalm 28:7; Isaiah 40:29–31; John 15:5).
A tenant receives the place (Genesis 2:8; Acts 17:26), the purpose (Ephesians 2:10), and the resources (2 Peter 1:3; Philippians 4:19) from the Owner’s hand.
Nothing is self-made.
Nothing is self-generated.
Nothing is self-sustained.
Genesis 2 makes this unmistakable.
God forms Adam.
God plants the garden.
God places the man in the garden.
God gives him identity and assignment.
Adam does not create the world he enters.
He receives it.
He lives inside the reality God already designed.
That is the posture of a tenant.
John 15 says the same in different words.
The Father is the vinedresser.
Jesus is the vine.
We are the branches.
Branches do not create fruit.
Branches bear the fruit the Vine supplies.
Fruit is partnership, not performance.
Fruit is grace expressed through obedience.
Paul reinforces this in 1 Corinthians 4.
We are stewards of God's mysteries.
Stewards don’t own anything.
They manage what belongs to someone else.
Faithfulness is the requirement.
Not brilliance.
Not strength.
Not perfection.
Faithfulness.
This is one reason Jesus called the unseen and overlooked to be His disciples. If He chose the elite, people would think spiritual authority depends on human credentials. God wants no confusion. Calling depends on Him.
The Heart of a Tenant
The world celebrates ownership because ownership feels powerful until you fall flat on your face. Any parent sees this daily. My two-year-old regularly pushes my hand away and says she can do it alone. Inevitably, she falls. And I lift her up. Ownership is skewed from the very beginning.
Scripture gives something far better.
God holds the ultimate power. He does whatever He pleases and all things hold together in Him (Ps 115:3; Col 1:16-17). Because you are made in His image, He entrusts His world to you as a tenant (Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:15). He does not give this to crush you. He draws you into partnership where His strength carries the work (Matt 11:28-30; John 15:4-5).
If God made you an owner, you would live isolated, self-reliant, and spiritually numb.
Ownership without God produces pride.
Tenancy produces intimacy.
A tenant walks in freedom because the weight of the world does not rest on his shoulders.
A tenant walks in peace because the land, the outcomes, the seasons, and the increase belong to God.
A tenant walks boldly because the Owner’s authority backs everything he manages.
A tenant walks in purpose because nothing is wasted.
This is mercy.
God invites us into His work without letting the work become our identity.
So what does it mean to be God’s tenant today?
Scripture gives three responsibilities.
Never Finished Challenge:
tend, guard, multiply
One. Tend what God gives.
God placed Adam in the garden to tend it.
To cultivate.
To care.
To bring order.
You tend your soul.
Your marriage.
Your children.
Your calling.
Your gifts.
The men God entrusts to you.
Nothing God gives is meant to be ignored or left wild.
A tenant tends. So tend. And ask Him for strength. Tending is impossible without Him.
Two. Guard what God entrusts
Before sin entered the world, Adam was told to keep the garden.
Keep means protect.
Stand watch.
Guard the territory.
Guard your purity.
Guard your time.
Guard your attention.
Guard your home.
Guard your mind.
Guard your marriage.
Guard the spiritual ground beneath your feet.
A tenant is not passive.
A tenant stands watch under the Owner’s authority.
So stand watch. Walk with Him daily in the Word, and He will train your eyes to see and your heart to understand.
Three. Multiply what God blesses.
The faithful servants did not cling to their talents. They used them, risked them, and multiplied them because they trusted the Owner’s character (Matt 25:14-30).
From the beginning, God’s command was multiplication.
Not ownership.
Not empire-building.
Multiplication.
Multiply faith.
Multiply disciples.
Multiply good works.
Multiply the influence God gives you.
Multiply the talents entrusted to you.
Multiply fruit that points back to the Vine.
A tenant doesn’t hoard. A tenant multiplies. A tenant takes what belongs to God, uses it for God, and returns it with increase. This is not pressure. This is trust. God provides the seed, the soil, the strength, and the increase. Your part is faithfulness. His part is the harvest.
You are not asked to defend the seed.
You are asked to plant it.
God brings the harvest.
So surrender everything to Him. It is all His anyway.
What Does Today Say About God?
Jehovah Shammah
The Lord is there.
This name reverses Eden’s exile.
Humanity was driven out of God’s presence in Genesis 3.
Ezekiel ends with God dwelling with His people again.
The story begins with separation and ends with presence.
There is no greater story.
What a Father.
What a King.
Thank you, Jesus.