SCRIPTURE READING: MATTHEW 20: 1-16
FOCUS: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what is mine? Why should my generosity make you jealous of them?’” (Matthew 20: 15 TPT)
MEMORY VERSE: “8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2: 8-9)
In our Focal Scripture, the householder asked the labourers that were hired early in the morning if he didn’t have a right to do what he wants with his money. He had shown kindness to the labourers who were hired in the eleventh hour, and the earlier labourers believed they deserved more by virtue of coming earlier than the eleventh hour labourers. They had their assessment of how they should be treated. They felt entitled.
Friend, when you come in contact with good men or kind men, don’t feel entitled. Don’t feel entitled to whatever someone around you did for another person. Don’t feel entitled to another man’s kindness. Don’t feel entitled to another man’s resources. Don’t feel entitled to whatever you didn’t expressly earn. Don’t feel entitled to any extra that another person has received. Don’t feel entitled to the favours that may have come to you.
There will be times when ‘Householders’ around you will refrain from showing you the same favours that they already showed to people around you, and you have to be okay with that. There will be times when others will be deliberately treated better than you were treated, on the basis of favour, and you have to be fine with that. There is even no law that commands or forces anyone to be kind to you. Kindness is not statutory.
Have you ever wondered why the householder chose to be kind to those who were hired at the eleventh hour, but refrained from doing same for those who were hired early in the day? Could it be that those who were hired at the eleventh hour, showed traits that elicited the kindness of the householder? When you see others being favoured ahead of you, instead of being jealous or feeling entitled, try to discern why they are preferred to you.
No matter the circumstance, never feel entitled to what another man freely did for you or what was done as kindness to another man. If it is not your right, don’t feel entitled to it.
FURTHER READING: EPHESIANS 2
DECLARATION:
- I refused to feel entitled to the favours I have received; I choose gratitude over entitlement, in Jesus’ name!
