If you've been following along with us then you know that the focus of this series has been on the importance of pursuing a lifestyle built on GIVING THANKS. Most folks are NOT very grateful and we're especially not grateful where God is concerned. Either we take the credit for all the good stuff He does or we don't even notice it because we're so concerned about all our problems. Or worse, we blame Him for the problems instead of the enemy and/or our own poor choices and decisions. But the Word of God especially in the New Testament says that we should be a CONTINUOUSLY GRATEFUL people (Ephesians 5:20, Colossians 3:17, Hebrews 13:15) pursuing a LIFESTYLE OF THANKSGIVING.

Now we've also pointed out that the INSTRUCTIONS for being thankful are there in our Bibles for our own good. It's not that God wants all that THANKSGIVING for Himself because He feels He's entitled to be appreciated or so we can fulfill some religious obligation. Indeed, that kind of attitude on His part would contradict the attributes of agape-type unconditional love that God IS (1 John 4:8, 16). No, the real reason for all those INSTRUCTIONS is that THANKSGIVING helps connect us to God's GRACE and empowerment which is exactly what we need to overcome our problems.

Knowing that, it makes sense to try to do everything possible to be responsive to the INSTRUCTIONS for being GRATEFUL and to RESIST the temptation to grumble and complain about all our tribulations like the Israelites did and got themselves into so much trouble. Their example shows that INGRATITUDE opens the door to the destruction of the Adversary (1 Corinthians 10:10, Romans 1:21-22) and we need to be alert to that possibility with the knowledge that one of Satan's major objectives is to do whatever he can to separate us from our power source: the GRACE of God.    

The Trap of Self Pity

One of the really devious approaches the enemy has for achieving that objective is convincing us that we ought to feel sorry for ourselves because it leads easily to grumbling and complaining. He encourages us to host our own Pity Party and here's the way he would like for us to be talking and thinking about ourselves:

"Woe is me. I'm faced with more serious problems than anybody else on planet Earth and they're more than I can deal with. So I'm going to tell everybody I run into about what I'm going through, IN DETAIL. Other people ought to be noticing what I'm going through and give me some credit for being so courageous and brave for just living through what I have to endure. And I need some sympathy too; people should tell me they understand what I am facing and that they feel my pain and feel sorry for me. In fact, other people should make an effort to take care of me and to provide me with some kind of relief from all this tribulation. In fact, they OWE me a lot because of my tribulations. Hey I'm sick and broke and they should want to give me whatever I ask for. I am ENTITLED to receive consideration!

"On top of everything God has ALLOWED me to go through all this suffering even though I read three chapters of the Bible every day and go to church every Sunday and Wednesday. And I tithe too but God just leaves me here in this terrible storm. So He OWES me deliverance from this mess because I do a lot for the Kingdom of God and you would think He would see all that and come to my rescue. I'm just going to stop talking to Him for a while until He gets the message and feels sorry enough for me to come and get me out of this. I am ENTITLED to be rescued."    

Maybe you can see yourself to some extent in this portrayal of contemporary grumbling and complaining. I can tell you candidly that I've been there before; in fact, I've been there more than once so focused on my problems, grumbling and complaining all the while that I lost perspective of all the good stuff God was doing all around me. When later I could see more clearly, there was good stuff everywhere but I had missed it and allowed myself to slip into INGRATITUDE. Fortunately I didn't stay too long at my Pity Party but some folks I've known have stayed at their little parties for decades and they're mostly miserable.

You may have seen in Scripture that Jesus was once faced with a real temptation to feel sorry for Himself although it's not clearly spelled out in the English translation. In Matthew 16:21-23 Jesus was foretelling His disciples that He would soon have to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and that He would be killed and then raised up on the third day. When He had told them these things, the disciple Peter took Jesus aside and REBUKED Him with in part the following words:

Matthew 16:22 = "God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to you!"

If you study this out in the original Greek you'll find that what Peter said was that Jesus shouldn't have to suffer such a terrible end because He didn't DESERVE it. The Greek actually says He should "pity Himself" if He should have to face such a future based presumably on who He was and all the great things He'd done. And Jesus responded with some of the strongest words you'll find coming out of His mouth in the entire New Testament. He didn't speak to Peter only, He spoke through Peter to Satan showing us that it was the Adversary trying to use one of the disciples to make Jesus feel sorry for Himself for what He was going to have to go through:

Matthew 16:23 = "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."    

Why did Jesus react so strongly against the words that had come out of the very devoted disciple who only a few verses earlier He had "complimented" for receiving direct revelation from the Father (Matthew 16:17)? The reason is that Jesus knowing what He was going to have to endure didn't want to entertain the thought that He didn't DESERVE what was going to happen. He didn't need a stumbling block to deal with that could give His humanity some reason not to go through with what He'd already been instructed to do. He knew very well that He had perfectly FULFILLED the Law and the human part of Him was ALWAYS open to temptation just like any of us. Remember too that Jesus told His disciples a short time later, just before He entered the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, that His soul was deeply grieved, to the point of death (Matthew 26:38) and then He sweat out His own blood (Luke 22:44) as He considered what He was going to have to go through. A little self pity had He allowed it to take root could have changed everything and you and I would still be looking for some way to restore fellowship with the Father.

Dealing with Entitlement