“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him” (Lam. 3:22-24).
Lately, I have been thinking about the concept of deservedness. What do I truly deserve in my life? What do I deserve from my work and family? I work hard and try to be a decent person. But that doesn’t guarantee that all things will go well. I want to be a good husband and father. I want to be a good pastor, too. Do I not deserve some joy and comfort as my reward? Do I not deserve some love from my family and a little respect from others? But life doesn’t always go as we expect. I have seen that life can quickly change and go south, and misfortune can follow. We live in a broken and unpredictable world.
The Bible teaches us that God comes to us in our pain. He comes to us in the Gospel. And when the grace of God comes into our hearts, our understanding of deservedness changes. In our condition of suffering and pain, we cry out: “I don’t deserve this…why me? I didn’t do anything wrong!” But the Bible corrects our perception about our experience in life.
Why do we suffer? We suffer because we have replaced God with something else in our lives. We think substituting God with other things or people can bring us more satisfaction (Rom. 1:21-23). Thus, the Bible points out, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). And “for the wages (result) of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23a). This is the universal picture of humanity.
What do we truly deserve in life? No matter how successful, moral and influential you are, we all deserve the fiery wrath of God and his painful condemnation. In other words, next time, when you feel that life is not fair and not giving you what you want, think differently. Say, “Oh Lord, I do deserve this misfortune and more. I am surprised that my failure is not more crushing and painful than I deserved. I accept this wrong. Please have mercy on me.” And you cry deeply before God.For some of us, this concept of repentance is too harsh to accept because you feel like you didn’t do anything wrong. But this is what we all deserve without Christ.
Here is the good news:
When the grace of God comes into our lives, our understanding of deservedness changes into gratitude! When we realize that our righteousness is nothing more than a filthy rag before God (Is 64:6), we deserve his wrath and condemnation, but our God does not give what we deserve but provides what we don’t deserve in Christ – his infinite love and grace. This understanding is where you can experience a sense of gratitude in Christ.
You can say, “Oh Lord, I don’t deserve your grace. I don’t deserve your love. What I really deserve is your punishment, for I am a sinner. But you have clothed me with your mercy and grace. Your lovingkindness is too much for me to grasp!”
Why is this important to understand? The grace of God changes our understanding of deservedness. By understanding it, we not only accept good and bad happening in our lives, but we accept them with a sense of gratitude (Phil. 4:10-13). What do you deserve?
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