No sense of entitlement

If you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Luke 6: 32

But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.  Luke 6: 35 – 36

One thing that is very prevalent in UK at the moment, especially amongst the younger generation, is a strong sense of entitlement. They feel they are owed work, money, entertainment, youth clubs and so on. It is their right to have these things. They see that others have them so they also want them. What they do not see is that people have often worked hard for these things and they are the fruits of their labours.

My sister was a local magistrate and one Christmas a woman came before the bench charged with shop lifting. She was unemployed and felt her children deserved a good Christmas and so she had stolen £500 worth of Christmas goods in order to give them the Christmas she felt they should have. She did not think there was anything wrong in what she had done.

Recompense and compensation are all around us and we are constantly told it is our right to have them. If you have an accident, someone must be blamed and you must get compensation. Everything is someone’s fault and they must not only recognise their fault, they must pay for it.

As Christians we must guard against any sense of entitlement especially to redress and compensation. We are not entitled to anything yet through Jesus and his incredible sacrifice on the cross, we have absolutely everything. It is by grace, the unmerited favour of God, that we receive it all. However in order to live in the fullness of all that Jesus has for us we must follow his example. Jesus was entitled to the highest honour, respect and glory. Yet he was mocked, scorned, ridiculed, beaten and crucified. What he did though was forgive his oppressors.

We may not be treated in this way but we too will have times when people mistreat, misunderstand and misuse us and the way Jesus dealt with his enemies and those who mistreated him is the same for us. He says forgive your enemies and do good to them. We may feel that if someone has wronged us we must have an apology and they must put things right but that is not Jesus’ way. We cannot demand compensation and restitution. Like Jesus, we must forgive those who hurt or misuse us and we must bless them as well. Too often though we think we have forgiven people, yet we go on speaking ill of them. In so doing we hurt ourselves most of all. However as we bless them, we release them from our unforgiveness, bitterness and judgement and any sense that they owe us anything and in so doing, we release ourselves also.

A sense of entitlement never brings anything good to us. A loving joyful acceptance of God’s amazing faithfulness and abundant provision to us brought to us by grace brings blessing upon blessing to our lives.