You Can’t Be Thankful and Entitled at the Same Time

You can’t be thankful and resentful at the same time. 

Do I mean to say when you’re in the middle of a terror that flies by night or an arrow by day, you should not tend to the attacks but instead give thanks? 

Let’s say I am to give thanks even in those situations. Would it make sense for George Floyd, for example, to have considered “at least the sky is blue today. Thank you, Lord,” while the police’s knee constricts his breathing? Is that what you believe?

Don’t be foolish! We fight the fight that needs fighting. Then we weep over the vestiges of the battle. Weep, weep, weep and mourn. Then, in time, when we’ve calmed down, and God brings to mind where He showed up, we give thanks.

If you’re not, as I am, in a hard place right now, practice giving thanks regularly. While life is your “normal” give thanks to God as a baseline. All throughout the day – so you don’t become an entitled child in an adult’s body! Give gratitude at least as much air time in prayer as requests. Practice, practice, practice this. For so many who feel life owes them something (and most of us do), it’s going to take some deliberate thanksgiving to drive entitlement out of us.

And what if we don’t do this? Resentment will set in. Bitterness that what you expected or demanded of God or others has not been rightfully given to you. 

The beautiful thing is that you really can’t be thankful and entitled at the same time. Gratitude softens the heart. Entitlement hardens it. 

And you can’t be thankful and resentful at the same time.

Gratitude arms and protects the heart from bitterness or resentment.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:28

I’m real because God is so real. ~ Nancy