Entitlement

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Luke 9:23 NIV

I was recently with a small group of Christians.  They all had various stressful issues on their minds, but what struck me was that they all seemed to feel that somehow it was a great injustice that they should be faced with such challenges.  Where does that come from? Surely not Jesus’ teaching. Sometimes pride and smugness creeps into the thinking of people who believed they are leading a “good” life. They start to feel entitled to a better-than-most quality of life. Where in the Gospels does it indicate that Christians will not suffer ? In fact, Jesus warns us that the Christian life will be full of difficulties.

Also, sometimes there is an attitude that as a believer that they are somehow protected against the negative consequences of foolish actions. Common sense is useful for everybody! When rash behaviour is motivated by a real love for others, God will usually honour that, but when risky behaviour is really  just about selfish ambition and greed, he isn’t going to honour that. As Christians, we need to be humble enough to seek advice from other Christians and to give  serious thought to it before we launch out on some pie-in-the-sky plan of action, or we may reap a harvest that we will deeply regret.