Thankfulness

Thankfulness is the best antidote to a sense of entitlement -- the poisonous attitude that "the world owes me." This misconception is epidemic in the work world and it is contrary to biblical teaching. The Apostle Paul commanded Christians to "keep away from every brother who is idle." Paul also taught by example -- working day and night to make himself a model for others to follow. He even gave this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." One definition of entitlement is the 'feeling or belief  that you deserve to be given something. Thankfulness is the opposite: a grateful attitude for what you already have. If I gave you what you deserved, your ultimate destination would be hell -- you would have no hope of salvation. So be thankful that I am rich in mercy; it is by grace you have been saved. Thinking you deserved more than you currently have will make you miserable, but a grateful attitude will fill you with Joy. Moreover, when you are thankful, you worship Me acceptably with reverence and awe. Based on II Thessalonians 3:6-10, Ephesians 2:4-5, Psalm 107:1, Hebrews 12:28. From Jesus Always by Sarah Young

Charles Spurgeon wrote, "The life of faith is a receiving. This implies the very opposite of any idea that we could earn our salvation. It is just the accepting of a gift. We are empty vessels into which God pours His salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, that is, making the matter a reality. So it is with our faith -- Christ becomes real to us. As long as we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us -- a person who lived a long time ago, a piece of history. But by an act of faith, Jesus becomes a real person in our consciousness. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Savior, so much mine that neither life nor death can rob me of him. We have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he has given us much -- life, pardon, and righteousness. These are all precious, but we have even more -- Christ himself! The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received Him."

I just finished reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It is a book that helps one be realistic about their aging and mortality which far too often people ignore or refuse to face. Though medicine has helped to extend our life span yet sometimes it goes too far in not allowing people to die with dignity.
"At least two kinds of courage are required in aging and sickness. The first is the courage to confront the reality of mortality -- the courage to seek out the truth of what is to be feared and what is to be hoped. Such courage is difficult enough. We have many reasons to shrink from it. But even more daunting is the second kind of courage -- the courage to act on the truth we find. The problem is that the wise course is so frequently unclear. For a long while I thought that this was simply  because of uncertainty. When it is hard to know what will happen, it is hard to know what to do. But the challenge, I've come to see, is more fundamental than that. One has to decide whether  one's fears or one's hopes are what should matter most." This book is filled with good case studies, practical illustrations of real people in real life situations of sickness, treatment and dying; including that of the author's own father.

The Psalm writer said "all the days ordained for us were written in God's book before one of them came to be." I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come but it is surely beyond my understanding.