Victory for Doubters - "Dealing with Entitled People

Are you entitled? Perhaps you have been led into believing that you are entitled to healthcare, a part of someone else's wealth, etc. That's at least what the media and politicians would have us believe. After all it's what our country was founded on. NOT!!

If you look to the word of God we see that in Numbers 16 God is very definite in his approach to dealing with "entitled people". Miriam and Aaron rise up against Moses. They feel they are entitled to be recognized by the Lord as Moses is. The Lord thinks otherwise. He makes Miriam into a leper and were it not for the Priestly garment Aaron wore he would have shared the same fate. The Lord did give them a chance to repent.

Again, in Acts 4:34 - 5:11 Ananias and his wife sold a piece of property to give to the Apostles but felt they could hold back some of the money. They felt they were entitled to the recognition that others who gave were getting. God did not particularly care for this deceit. He was swift to Judge.

While we too would like to follow God's example it is not for us to be quite so final in our actions. We must remember we have not quite reached the perfection of God.

In John 8:1-10 we see how Jesus deals with this issue. A woman caught in the very act of adultery is brought into the midst of the crowd before Jesus. They ask Jesus whether they should stone the woman as Mose's law commands or not. They are not interested in justice.

They are trying to use this incident to bring Jesus down and elevate themselves in the people's eyes. To this end they are not above using other people.

Jesus reaction? Ignore them. He writes in the sand. And he continues writing until one by one the accusers have left. What did he write? Could have been the sins of the accusers? The Bible does not specify. But this is an effective way to deal with entitled people. Jesus refocused their attention from the sins of others to their own sins.

The entitlement mentality is a contagious one. People who feel entitled will try to show you how you too are entitled to what they themselves feel entitled to. Don't fall into this. Ignore them. Obviously, God doesn't like an entitlement attitude. You would not want to have him deal with you in the same manner he has dealt with others.

If "entitled" people can't draw you in to their mentality they will then try to bring you down. Don't listen to them, don't react to what they say. Don't fall into the trap of condemning others. Don't boast of your own righteousness. Your righteousness is from what Jesus did, not from anything you did. We must identify our lack of ability to Judge because of the sins that still reside in ourselves. We are told elsewhere in the Bible that before we can remove the speck from our brother's eye we need to remove the plank from our own eye.