I recently posted a blog on Cat and Dog Theology.  My cat lives out of a sense of entitlement, or having rights to things.  My dogs live more out of a place of gratitude, where all is gift.  In my life, do I live out of a place of gratitude or entitlement today?

In today’s society it is so easy to feel entitled or to feel we have rights to things – to a good job, a family with a couple kids, 2 cars, a house.  You know, the American dream.   Maybe you feel entitled to a life of happiness without pain or suffering.  Tonight, I have been focusing on the following verse and asking myself the question: can I say with David —

Psalm 16:6:  “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    surely I have a delightful inheritance.” (NIV)

I have learned that I have no rights except these:
1. To be adopted as God’s child because of Jesus.
2. To cry Abba, Father.
3. To come boldly to the throne of grace anytime, any place, for any reason.
4. To worship Him with every part of me forever.

I am learning that ALL IS GIFT.  Everything I have today is a gift from God.  I came into this world with nothing and I will leave the same way some day. As I have learned about having no rights and receiving everything that happens and everything I am given as a gift from my Father, I have found great freedom.

When I live believing that I have rights to things, I end up feeling at the mercy of those things and feel despair when things don’t happen the way I think they should or things just aren’t the way I think they should be.  When I live out of a place of gratitude where all is gift, I experience true freedom and true peace. It is all a matter of attitude and perspective.

I have been meditating the last few days on the following verses:

Romans 8:32: “Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else?”

John 15:16:   “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

Do I really believe God will give me all things?  As I began to meditate on these verses and reflect on when God has provided or not provided the things I asked for, I realized I was assuming more than these verses say.   The Scriptures do not say He will provide whatever I ask in the way I think it should happen and the timing and place I desire.  They only say He will provide.  The how, where, and when are not specified.  Those are up to God.  You see, God has a strategy!  He is strategic in everything that happens today because everything is all for His glory!!  Also, if I knew or dictated, the how, where, and when, it would require no trust or faith on my part and God would not be God.  God is a good God and He is also sovereign.  Another thing to consider when thinking about God giving me all things is: is it all about me or is it all about Him?  John 15:16 tells me that it is all about Him – that I might bear fruit so that He will be glorified!  He chose me that He might be glorified.