Have you guys ever heard of the song that debut on Love and Hip-Hop Atlanta by Momma Dee? If not please listen before you even read this post. It will add some cushion to the blow of Scripture later on.

If you are anything like me, I love music. Music can hardly be bad because it’s an expression of the artist. It holds all of their uniqueness and flavor, if you will, or lack of. Whenever my nephew slams his fist on my keyboard or bangs on the guitar strings, I never criticize his efforts or plug my ears because his heart is on display. Momma Dee’s heart is on display throughout this song. The chorus repeatedly states “I deserve to be loved…she deserves, he deserves, we deserve, I deserve to be loved.” I can deeply relate. I mean, can’t we all? At the end of the song, she even says that we are God’s creatures, which must mean we deserve something!

if we are the adults, who do we choose to blame?

The online dictionary defines deserving as “worthy of being treated in a particular way”. It sounds a bit absurd to claim that a toddler wants to be worshipped, but in reality, worship is exactly what they are demanding. If you are graced by the presence of a little-one, you can see firsthand how we all come out of the womb ready to steal the spotlight. We deserve the bottle. We deserve the toy. We deserve to be dealt with gracefully even after deliberately disobeying. We even deserve the cookie before dinner. What happens when we fail to receive what we rightfully own? An all-out kicking and screaming temper tantrum (probably leading to a good-ole ‘ss whoopin).

Oh, let us not neglect our adolescent years. There is no doubt we deserved the cell phone, because who didn’t have a cell phone by the age of 10? By 16, the car better be in our possession along with a tailor-made boyfriend in the front seat. But teenage years cry nothing short of deserving to be known and loved. Regardless of what we felt we needed at the time, the injustice falls on the adult/guardian for the failure to provide what was ours to begin with.

But what about us adults? What about us Christian adults? Have we mastered the concept yet? Moreover, if we are the adults, who do we choose to blame? There are countless times that I felt like I deserved more than what I was given; worth more than what people treated me like; gave more than what I got in return. In almost every situation where I have not been treated fairly, someone else was to blame for it. As a believer, I always seem to blame God and his character. It is one thing to attack an assumed offense of God, but another to attack the motive of God. When I look at myself as deserving, I am ultimately demanding that I should be worshipped, not God.

A deserving heart takes the place of the One who truly deserves our heart.

The only way to know the character of God is through Scripture. God is the only candidate who should be worshipped (Exod. 34:14). God knows the plans he has for us, and they are good (Jer. 29:11). God’s way of thinking is beyond ours; therefore, he can be trusted (Isa. 55:8-9). No one is good, except God alone (Luke 18:19, emphasis mine). “The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy” (Ps. 111:7, emphasis mine). A deserving heart takes the place of the One who truly deserves our heart. Ultimately, the spirit of entitlement calls God an unfit and cruel judge. He is not worthy of worship, we are. He is not the judge, we are. He is not inherently good, we are. He is not right, we are. He does not know what is best for us, we do. And if Scripture has it, which it always does, we have dreadfully missed the mark (Romans 3:23).

As we can see, our hearts are awfully sinful. Entitlement is an ugly heart issue that is adorned in self-justification. If there is any conviction of having a spirit of entitlement, you should confess it to the Lord. James 1:9 assures us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We must remember Jesus always, who lived a perfect and deserving life; died a gruesome and undeserving death; rose with our justice and freedom. It is only through Christ that we attain all that we do not deserve and more!