Entitlement and Rights

Living in the United States of America, we are considered blessed. With a land flowing in milk and honey and abundant in meats and grain, and many other natural resources; we tend to think ourselves “the blessed country.” With those who profess a belief in God, we quite often take the ethnocentric position of believing God favors our country most because of the so-called “blessings” we’ve received. (I will admit living in the United States is probably one of the best countries to be born or reside.) Because we possess these “blessings,” I noticed a certain stain in our attitudes with the way we think. I believe this is an epidemic or plague upon our minds, hearts, and spirits. We have adopted an attitude and taken a position claiming entitlement and rights to justify receiving what we think we deserve.
This egocentric form of thinking, of course, is not new to Americans. Throughout history, humans have always struggled with this juvenile ideology. THE TRUTH IS, WE DESERVE NOTHING AND HAVE RIGHTS TO THE SAME; NOTHING. What have we ever done to deserve anything? We don’t choose our location or time of birth; our parents, ethnicity, or heritage; or our biological traits or physiological characteristics. God chose those details for us. We are who we are and have what we have because God willed or allowed it as so.
We need to depart from this idea that any of us deserves or has the right to anything; because we don’t. We didn’t do anything to deserve the oxygen we breathe, the plants and animals we eat, the clothes we wear, or the shelter over our heads. What did we ever do to have the right to anything? We are all born naked and without any possessions of our own. We didn’t choose to receive this life; God gave us the gift of life.
I present the truth. Anything we receive in our lifetimes is only due to the mercy and grace of our Creator; God. He created and willed our births to this earth, without needing or wanting our approval or consent. He designed us to live off the oxygen in the air, sustain our lives with the energy and nutrients of plants and animals, and possess the intelligence to make clothing and use the resources in our environment to build or take shelter. We didn’t earn these abilities or knowledge. We received them from God.
We don’t deserve or have a right to this life, but our Father’s infinite love desires us to live it.