I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High. – Psalm 7:17
As we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday this year we need to be mindful of all we for which we can be thankful. To remember we have a loving, personal God who cared enough about us to send His own Son to die for us, so we could live with Him eternally. God has blessed many of us with wonderful family and friends that we can count on day and night to be there for us. You have many blessings that go unnoticed, things we take for granted.
Entitlement says, ‘I don’t have it, I deserve it, so I’m going to take it.’
Do you recognize entitlement rather than gratitude in your life?
We don’t take nearly as much time to thank God for all of His wonderful provisions. Often we take them for granted, as if we deserve them, as if they were owed to us. At the Every Man’s Battle Workshop, we talk about this sense of entitlement as being one of the roadblocks to recovery. When we feel like we deserve something, and don’t look at it as a gift, that we are setting ourselves up for failure and for relapse. Being thankful for what you have is the opposite of entitlement. Entitlement says, ‘I don’t have it, I deserve it, so I’m going to take it.’ Thankfulness says, ‘I have it, I probably don’t deserve it, and I’m going to share it and be grateful for it.’
Thankfulness says, ‘I have it, I probably don’t deserve it, and I’m going to share it and be grateful for it.‘
Do you recognize gratitude in your life?
In a sermon by author and speaker Jim Burns, entitled ‘Thank Therapy,’ he shared that each day he tells the Lord Twenty things that he is thankful for. It could be as small as that his car started that morning. It could be that he even has a car! Or it could be that he has the opportunity to influence thousands of people around the world with the ministry that God has given him. They don’t have to be big things, but they are all things that keep him from having the sense of entitlement.
How about you? As this Thanksgiving season approaches, how about giving ‘Thank Therapy’ a try. Look for the good in your life and in your loved ones. Share those qualities with them, and thank them for being in your life. And thank the Lord for them, and all the things He has given you. It could turn out to be the best Thanksgiving you’ve had in a long time!
