The Myth of Entitlement

   “I deserve it.” “I won it fair and square.” “I have a right to it.” This has become the normal perspective in today’s society. But, do we really deserve everything we think we do? Do we even deserve everything we have?

   Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We do not deserve anything we have. What we really deserve is death. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned they should have died. But, God was merciful and did not physically kill them. Instead they lived the rest of their lives apart from God, which is like death. Then later they did die physically.

   Now, when we are born we are sinners. We chose to sin and when we do we deserve death. Just think about that. Let it really sink in. You work in order to reflect God’s glory. You do your best to provide for your family. You bust your butt every day to get money. Don’t you think you deserve a little something?

   If you answered yes to that question you may be falling into the myth of entitlement. I'm not saying that you are full of yourself; but you need to understand that we are small fish in a big sea. God cared enough to save all of the small fish in the big universe. Also, you need to understand that God is holy. He cannot be with anything that is unlike him. But, because of Jesus’ work on the cross we get what we do not deserve: eternal life. Think about that. Because of someone else’s work we have eternal life. There is nothing else we can do in order to gain that gift. We need to believe in Christ in order to get that gift.

   We do not deserve anything except death. We can do good deeds, help others, work really hard, and pray a lot but none of that matters unless we have Christ as our personal savior.

   So, on this Labor Day I want you to ask yourself have you fallen into the myth of entitlement. Do you realize that the only thing you deserve is death? Do you have eternal life through the work of Christ?

   Romans 5:12, John 14:6, Genesis 3