Ezekiel 29:1-5: in context

God speaks against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, calling him the great monster lying in the middle of his rivers, who says, my river is my own, and I have made it for myself. The Nile was the source of Egypt's wealth and power, and Pharaoh claimed it as his own possession, his own making, as if he had created it and it existed for him. For this arrogant claim of ownership, God says, he will hook the monster and drag him from his rivers.

Pharaoh's boast captures a particular pride: my river is my own, and I have made it for myself. The Nile, which Pharaoh did not create and could not control, the gift on which all Egypt's life depended, he claimed as his own possession, his own making, existing for his benefit. It is the delusion of the self-made, who look at the gifts they have received, wealth, position, ability, the very life that sustains them, and claim them as their own doing, their own possession, theirs to use for themselves. My river is my own; I made it for myself. This is a pride we easily fall into, in gentler forms than Pharaoh's but the same in essence. We look at what we have, our income, our home, our abilities, our accomplishments, our very lives, and quietly think of them as our own, self-made, ours to do with as we please, forgetting that all of it is gift, received, not made by us, given by God and held in trust. My river is my own, we think, though we did not make the river and cannot keep it flowing. But nothing we have is truly self-made, and nothing is truly, finally our own. What do you have that you did not receive? Paul asks; and if we received it, why boast as though we had not? The breath in our lungs, the abilities we exercise, the wealth we accumulate, all of it is given, held in trust, not the self-made possession we imagine. To say with Pharaoh, my river is my own, I made it for myself, is to forget the Giver, to claim ownership of what was only ever entrusted to us, and to use for ourselves what was given for God's purposes. The remedy is to remember that all we have is received, not made; held in trust, not owned; given by God, to whom we are accountable for it. The Nile was not Pharaoh's making, and it was not finally his; and the gifts we call our own are likewise God's, entrusted to us, held in stewardship, not the self-made possessions we are tempted to think them.

Do I look at what I have, my income, abilities, accomplishments, my very life, and quietly claim it as my own, self-made and mine to use as I please, forgetting the Giver, or can I heed the folly of Pharaoh's my river is my own, remembering that all I have is received, not made, held in trust from God rather than owned?