This Day-7 devotion is adapted from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon "Labourers in The Vineyard"

The Danger of Entitlement

Jesus' parable of the laborers in the vineyard exposes one of the subtlest causes of spiritual depression: entitlement. In this story, workers hired at different times all receive the same wage. Those who worked longer complain, "These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat" (Matthew 20:12).

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones identified a similar attitude among long-time Christians who become spiritually depressed. They feel they deserve more—more recognition, more blessing, more spiritual experiences—because of their years of service. When God appears to bless newer believers equally or even more abundantly, resentment takes root.

The landowner's response cuts to the heart of the issue: "Friend, I am doing you no wrong... Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you" (Matthew 20:13-14). The fundamental problem is forgetting that everything in the Christian life is grace.

Lloyd-Jones observed that Christians often start well, embracing salvation as an undeserved gift. But over time, they develop a sense of spiritual achievement that leads to entitlement. They forget that thirty years into the Christian journey, they remain as dependent on grace as on their first day of faith.

This entitlement manifests as grumbling—against God, against other Christians, against life circumstances. "Do you begrudge my generosity?" the landowner asks (Matthew 20:15). Essentially, the question is whether we've forgotten that everything good in our lives comes from God's generosity, not our merit.

The cure for this spiritual depression is remembering that "from first to last, everything is of grace." The longtime believer needs grace as desperately as the deathbed convert. The mature Christian requires God's generosity as much as the newest believer.

Today, examine whether entitlement has crept into your spiritual life. Are you comparing your blessings to others'? Are you tallying your years of service as if God owes you something? Remember that the gospel destroys all grounds for comparison and complaint. In Christ, we receive not what we deserve but immeasurably more.