Entitlement
Lately the Lord has been talking to me about entitlement- one of the things the church doesn’t talk about enough. It used to be a preserve of the teenagers, this thing: to walk around feeling like you have a right to certain things or feelings because you are somehow “owed”. But it is really just a profoundly human trait.

Take the whole “prosperity gospel”, for instance: that slightly heretical doctrine that says that if you claim the Lord’s financial promises, you will be rewarded handsomely. Press button, receive money. It makes the Lord sound like an ATM: ask for twenty dollars, and you get twenty dollars. Or maybe He is an investment bank: do something special in addition, then you receive a hundredfold…

I am not saying the Lord doesn’t bless, oh please do not get me wrong. What I am against is the heart attitude that says the Lord MUST. The Lord owes you nothing, friend, except punishment for sin… The promises in the Bible are there not because we have done something special by coming to the altar for salvation, lest we pat ourselves on the back. No, the Lord actually put all those in because of His love, His love that finds us when we are still set against Him, and woos us….

It’s like, if you will, a person going to court and waiting to receive their sentence, knowing they are guilty; and the judge smiles, and says, ‘You know what? I will pay for what you have done myself, and wait- you know what else? I will give you the world. I will give you health. I will give you many children, and will bless the work of your hands. I will bless the place where you stand, I will bless your coming in, and your going out. The city will be blessed because of you, and the people you work for will be blessed. Wait, I will even bless your children and their children, to the fourth generation…’

We must guard our hearts against the attitude of entitlement, because it breeds more and more bad attitudes. I should know. I have walked around for ages thinking well, you know what, I had a tough childhood, and the Lord really owes me one. He doesn’t, actually. Even if I should have a really tough rest-of-my-life, it should not create a bad attitude in my heart, a feeling that now the Lord has ‘done it’, and He’s not getting away with it. Just as no one owes me respect, or love, or any of the other things I may demand from those around me.

Be challenged to search your heart, friend, next time you are mad at the Lord for not answering your prayer. There may be something deeper in there than mere disappointment.