Giving up my "rights"

I don’t know if I have written about this before (I apologize if I am being repetitious), but I felt today that I needed to reflect some on my “rights” and what God asks me to do in relation to my “rights”. Let me begin by saying that this subject is something that I heard a career missionary speak about, and it has caused me to evaluate my life. Instead of repeating what I heard I will attempt to reflect on my own life and struggles in this area.
As naturally selfish beings we are born with the belief that we have rights to many things. Additionally, our society, and even our very Bill of Rights, affirms that belief. We believe that we have rights to: various freedoms, long life, health, wealth, happiness, etc. Therefore, since we believe that we have these rights we often will fight for them or at least become indignant and angry when we feel that we are not being allowed to enjoy them. I, for one, struggle with anger when I see that the government is more and more infringing on my “right” to practice my faith.
Here, however, I would like to suggest that God wants us to give all of our “rights” up to Him. I submit that if we give all to Him we will receive more than we could imagine. Do not misunderstand, I am not suggesting that we give to Him in order to receive a blessing. For instance, if instead of clinging to our right to have affluence and never know need, we say to God, “I give up my right to a good paying job, job security, and the nice sum in my investment accounts” , the only blessing that we may receive is the “peace that passes understanding”. We cannot give up our rights with the expectation that we receive back even more, but instead give them up because they are not really ours in the first place, and knowing that God knows a whole lot better than we do how to take care of those issues.
I would imagine that Abraham felt like he had a right to keep Isaac for himself. After all he was his only son. How could God ask him to give up his right to his only son? How could God ask Gideon to give up the comfort and security of a large and well-armed army when heading into battle? How could God ask Joseph to give up his right to his good reputation and marry the unmarried and pregnant girl, Mary? In all of these cases, and many more in the Bible, God had a better plan in mind. Could we not suppose that the same thing is still true today?
Though I do not in any way claim to have arrived, I would like to say that when I have been able to give up my rights I have found that I have been overwhelmed with peace, knowing that I no longer needed to strive or worry about the situation. How much easier it is to trust that God will take care of me than to try with all of my might hang onto my “rights”.