gratitude

Opening Prayer: O Lord, when I look at what I deserve, because of my sin and disobedience, and what I have been given, because your abundant grace and unfailing love, I am filled with a deep sense of humility, joy, and gratitude.  Thank you that you have given me your uprightness, your righteousness and your peace, even though I do not deserve it.  That is definitely reason to brighten up, spin around, and shout aloud.  Thanks be to God!

Scripture: Psalm 32:1-11

Journal: Would you say your life is marked more by gratitude or entitlement?  Why?  What does a life that is marked by gratitude look like?  How do you cultivate such a life?

Reflection: The blessed life, according to King David, is one in which you know what you really deserve, as well as what you don’t.  Gratitude is always the result of being given what you do not deserve.  It comes from recognizing and acknowledging that you have received a gift.  You have done nothing to earn or achieve the love and the grace and the forgiveness and the compassion that has been lavished upon you, it is the gift of God.  And the receiving of that gift always brings about joy and celebration.  It always causes us to rejoice (brighten up, in the Hebrew), to be glad (literally, to spin around), and to sing (shout aloud).

The opposite of gratitude is not necessarily ingratitude, but entitlement.  Entitlement comes from thinking you deserve better, that you are owed something.  It is a posture and an attitude that makes gratitude impossible.  In fact, entitlement poisons the soul, always leading to ingratitude, as well as to all sorts of other ugly and horrific states of heart and mind: pride, arrogance, disregard, self-centeredness, and, ultimately, frustration, bitterness, and anger.  Not particularly the blessed life that God had in mind.

So the question is, what will it be today, gratitude or entitlement?  The choice is up to you.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, give me a spirit of gratitude, rather than a spirit of entitlement.  Help me to always recognize your love and your grace in ways that help me to offer love and grace to others, as well as to myself.  Amen.