The sacrifice that honors me is a thankful heart. It prepares the way so that I, your God, may show you my power… Psalm 50:23

There’s an old sermon illustration which I’ve enjoyed about two old friends who bumped into each other on the street after not meeting for quite a while. One looked dejected, on the verge of tears. His friend asked, “What’s the matter?” The sad guy answered, “Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me fifty thousand dollars.” “That’s a lot of money,” replied his friend. “Are you sad about your uncle’s death?”

“Well not really, it’s just that two weeks ago a cousin I never even knew died, and left me a hundred thousand free and clear.” “Wow! Sounds like you’ve been really blessed…” “Wait! You don’t understand!” the sad guy interrupted. “Last week my great-aunt passed away and I inherited almost half a million.” Now the friend was really confused. “Then, why are you so bummed out?” The sad guy answered, “This week no one died!”

We are a people that fall easily into an attitude of entitlement. God expects us to be thankful. Not in a circumstance-dependent way, but in a Spirit-induced way. If we are ever to practice kindness effectively, appreciation has got to be foundational.

Something that is often missed today, is that there’s an immense spiritual significance in thankfulness—in refusing to have to nurse and entitlement attitude. As today’s verse states, thankfulness is a significant key to release God’s power…a spirit of heartfelt and mouth-expressed thankfulness is one of the most life-shaping qualities you and I can possess.

Thankfulness releases God’s power. It gives us access to anointing (1 Jn 2:20). That is, it opens the way for us to experience a side of Jesus that we can’t so long as we live in an entitlement mindset.

In the Bible, God promises us many wonderful things. But we can become entitlement-driven about the fulfillment of those promises if we’re not careful. And like the story above, when God gives us much, it’s so easy to allow a spirit of entitlement to creep in and steal the blessing. And that’s when the promises of God become unfilled in our lives. He won’t contribute to our destruction by feeding our wrong attitudes. When He tells us to give thanks in everything (Eph 5:20), He is actually prescribing the way for us to position ourselves to receive what He promises us.

Daniel is a great example of this, and I want to look at how he dealt with it next time…