I deserve better

One of America’s great struggles over the next five years will be with government’s so-called ‘entitlement’ programs. With spending out of control and mountains of debt threatening to break our national economy, courageous politicians will have to make hard choices about raising the age of when a person can take a Social Security pension, about spending on education and health care, and about how much we will support various special interest groups. There will be much hand-wringing and screaming!

Entitlement is not just a government thing, either. I do not like to admit it, but there are moments when I allow myself to feel entitled! Thoughts form around this idea - “I’m a good guy. They owe me.” Isn’t that ugly? It sure is. When I fall into that dark hole, the results are not good, with depression and anger soon to follow. Why? Because, in that moment, life becomes a very small bundle of ME. Gratitude becomes impossible.


Entitlement is really ugly when it enters our relationship with God. When we begin to love Self so much that we allow ourselves to say or think, “He owes me,” things have gone seriously awry. He is God, I am not. I owe Him my life and love, for "who has given Him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to Him forever! Amen." (Romans 11:35-37, NLT) Cultivating a true attitude of gratitude lays a foundation for faith and worship. Consistently offering thanks to God, not in a perfunctory way, but from the heart, breaks the mesmerizing hold of Self. This births a new humility in which we willingly trust and obey the Lord.

From the opening pages of Scripture, disobedience was fed by the root of ‘me-ism,’ the insistence that Self must be served above all things - the welfare of others and even God Himself.

• Eve sinned because she wanted to indulge her desire.
• Moses sinned when he allowed himself to be fed up with serving the ever-demanding Israelites.
• David sinned when he thought he just had to have Bathsheba, and his lust fed an escalating series of sins that led to proxy murder!
• God, through the prophets, sharply rebuked those who fed Self by oppressing the poor and the weak. "Here it is, bluntly spoken: Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, You’re never going to move into the luxury homes you have built ... You bully right-living people, taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down. Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath. " (Amos 5:11-13, The Message)

This Thanksgiving, will you choose gratitude?

Perhaps you are in a hard place; struggling to make it in our tough economy, dealing with disappointment in a broken relationship, or facing a crisis in your body’s health. It might be that as you see things right now, life is not fair. Choose to thank God for His goodness anyway. Tear down the throne of Self, and invite Christ to be Lord of your life, even your very attitudes. The Bible calls this a "sacrifice of praise to God,” and urges us to offer this sacrifice “continually, ... the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." (Hebrews 13:15, KJV)

God will not bless those who think of themselves as entitled! But, to the humble, who are full of gratitude, He shows abundant mercies.
_________________

Give thanks
With a grateful heart,
Give thanks to the Holy One;
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ, His Son.

And now let the weak say,
"I am strong."
Let the poor say,
"I am rich"
Because of what
The Lord has done for us.
And now let the weak say,
"I am strong."
Let the poor say,
"I am rich"
Because of what
The Lord has done for us.
Give thanks.

Give Thanks
Smith, Henry
© 1978 Integrity's Hosanna! Music (c/o Integrity Music, Inc.)
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