Blessings may not be what you expect.

I hope today is full of God’s blessings for you. If you have not heard the song by Laura Story Blessings I recommend it. It brings to light that even the trials we face are part of God’s plan for our lives. I remember as a kid having growing pains. You might remember that, you woke up one morning a few inches taller and your whole body hurt as it adjust to the changes. But it allowed you to become who you are today. The blessings that come are so very important to our growth in Jesus.

I want to share about the next hindrance to are walking with God. The issue is entitlement, this is the idea that because of whom I am or how long I have been attending this church I am deserving of preferential treatment. We all have heard the story of the visitor being asked to move by sister so-n-so. Or even about a parking space, I once new a lady who stopped attending a church because they cut down the shade tree she had parked under for the last 40 years. It was not even a parking space she was parking in the grass in front of the church. Entitlement causes us to think of ourselves first and the sinner last.

Mark 10:35-39, “35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”   ³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. ³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  ³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” ³⁹ “We can,” they answered.    Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with,

These two brother s are a great example of entitlement they believed because they had walked with Jesus that they were fit to sit to his right and left. But Jesus explains to them that it is not his to give but that they will be treated in like manner as he will be. They both die as martyrs. What I don’t understand is that Jesus has just told them in Mark 10:33-34, “³³ “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, ³⁴ who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” Now what kills me is there response was not for Jesus’ well being but how they would benefit from what he was about to go through. But I have to ask myself a question do I ever put my wants ahead of what I am called to do? I know a fail at this more than I want to realize. I must ask God to forgive me of my desire for entitlement and ask him to help me see others the way he does. I have included a link to the Laura Story song I mentioned at the beginning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ