Read Psalm 23

God’s concern for us is beyond our comprehension. To what do we owe such love? Can we return to God anything that would merit such grace? Entitlement is a word that gets a lot of mileage these days. People feel entitled to the property (intellectual and material) of others because the opposite party is believed to be more privileged than the other, leaving the first part at a disadvantage. Because of the confusion of social justice, there is a confusion of what is “FAIR.”

There is also an emotional entitlement people may feel they deserve, like anger. The offense of another tempts us to feel we have the right to be angry or hateful of another because of the feeling of being disadvantaged by the abuse of an opposite in which the other takes advantage of that is considered as being abusive of their privilege. Some would feel entitled to be angry with God for the loss of a loved one. It can go deeper. Some even cling to the right to hate themselves to the point that they feel they do not deserve to be loved. They don’t love themselves because the privilege is not theirs and they don’t feel entitled to be loved another, especially God.

We could easily lay on God the right to be angry with us. If anybody has a right to be angry and deserving of our love, it would be God. If anyone has the right to distance himself from His creation because of the offenses committed against him and his son, it should be God. From that thinking, we’ve made an enemy of ourselves and of God.

It hurts God when we think this way. The bible tells us in exquisite detail how God had let us fumble in our own devices in order for us to hopefully awaken to His goodness. Isaiah 5 says that God only wanted to take his people and put them in the garden which he created for them, securely and safely.

Isaiah 5:2

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines.

He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well.

He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!

3“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.

4What more could I have done for My vineyard than I already did for it?

Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

So, a lot of talk about expectations. A lot of talk about entitlement and privilege. God has made every preparation for us to attain to our created purpose–to have a relationship with Him. Is it not right that we should receive the benefit of the love and care with which He wants to bless us? After this past year can there be any greater testimony to the fact that in this world there is NO hope.