The Flipside of Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving approaching, we should try to position our hearts towards gratitude. But there are forces that keep us from being grateful, one of them is a sense of entitlement.

The following is a quote from Julie Lowe from her blogpost:

Discontentment is easily triggered in us because we have an underlying sense of entitlement. We believe that we are inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. I deserve that new electronic device, or that vacation, or peace and quiet when I come home after working all day. Entitlement justifies whatever self-focused response pours out of my mouth or actions. Entitled desires quickly become demands that excuse putting myself first and the needs of others last (if at all). These things, no matter how much I desire them, are not innate human rights but wants that have risen to a level of necessity in our hearts and minds. In contrast, Scripture tells us that our goal is not to look for what we deserve but to be poured out as an offering to others (Philippians 2:17). We are to “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).

In order to be grateful, we have to rid ourselves of the sense that we deserve a bunch of stuff. Humility puts us in a position to be thankful for what God has given us.