There is a yucky, nasty, ugly word that just keeps coming up this month for me. The word is entitlement.
Ew!
No body wants to be defined as entitled yet most, if not all of us suffer with entitlement.
With the way the world is these days its hard not to be. We can order a pizza and have it delivered right to our door. We can download an app and have a car outside to pick us up and take us anywhere we want to go. We can order just about anything online and have it shipped right to our doors. Entitlement is just built into our nature with all these advances in technology.
But we don’t deserve it. We didn’t earn anything. Yet we feel like we deserve it and have earned it somehow. I mean we are just too amazing not to be owed this and that.
This may sound a little far fetched but honestly it is all too easy to fall into this secret sneaky lie.
Lets all think of the last week…when did you get a little bit of entitlement in your head?
Was it at work or school? Was it at church? With your family? Your spouse? Your parents?
Here is an example from my week. I am ashamed to even share this but its time to fess up!
So my mommy is coming to India this week! YAY!
As she was going through the laundry list of items I have requested her to bring I thought first of how awesome she is for bringing it…but then the thought snuck into my head that I somehow deserve all these nice things. I am owed new jeans because mine are so worn out. I deserve some cheese-its because I have worked so hard the past few months and am owed a nice treat. I mean talk about being a brat!!!
Its just so easy to think these thoughts…but what does the Bible say about entitlement??
Umm well the only thing the Bible says we deserve is hell.
We don’t deserve blessings, we don’t deserve health, we don’t deserve new jeans from the USA…we only deserve hell.
YIKES!!
But Jesus died and took my place and took my sin and shame upon Himself soooo now I GET to go to heaven…I didn’t earn that…He did. Its a gift.
Its like someone saying “I’m not just going to pay off your student loans for free…I am also going to give you a billion dollars!!”
That is what He did for you and me!
That should be enough don’t you think? Yet we somehow think we are entitled to more than that.
We deserve that raise at work or that new car. I deserve to have healthy parents who will never get sick or die.
We can’t be bitter at God when things don’t go the way we want. We don’t deserve any of it.
We haven’t earned anything. Heaven is a gift for us. It was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ and given to us for free. Thats all we have and thats all we need. Everything else good in our lives is just the cherry on top of an incredible gift.
So how do we fight off this terrible, sinful, fleshly, desire?
Entitlement ends where gratitude beings.
Something changes deep inside you when you change your sinful heart to a grateful heart.
Start by thanking God in every prayer. Start seeing all the negative things around you as a positive. Instead of complaining that your food is taking too long at the restaurant, thank your server for all their hard work and tip them well…pray for them even! Instead of being upset that your car broke down, thank God for even giving you a car in the first place because most people in the world don’t have one.
I am telling you, the more you are thankful the less entitlement will sneak into your thoughts.
Entitlement will cost you heaven. Having a good heart won’t get you into heaven. Thinking that you deserve heaven is exactly how you get yourself out of heaven.
The people who are going to heaven are the ones who know they don’t deserve it and thank God for saving them from hell and accepting the gift of eternal life with Him.
Accept what Jesus did for you and thank Him for it.
Blessings,
Niki
