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.