Hello, writing friends! Welcome to another edition of our weekly Five Minute Friday blog link-up . . . and happy first weekend of July! I don’t know how it happened, but here we are.
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This week’s writing prompt is: DESERVE
Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.Â
When I stop and think about it, it seems to me that the majority of the conflicts and controversies these days are rooted in the belief that somebody deserves something. As if we have a right to possess something in particular or be treated in a particular way.
Think about it with me: Weren’t most of the conflict and controversies that permeated the pandemic based on beliefs about rights and what people “deserved”? Isn’t that was dominates the conversation about LGBTQ+ rights and other hot topics these days?
We think we deserve our freedom.
We think we deserve to make our own choices.
We think we deserve happiness.
We think we deserve comfort and convenience.
We probably wouldn’t go so far as to use these words, but we think we deserve to play God.
You might not like to hear this, but if we’re basing our beliefs on what the Bible says, the only thing we deserve is hell. Eternal punishment.
When we forget that, we so easily get our priorities mixed up and we end up demanding, discontent, argumentative, slighted.
We must remember: It is purely and solely by the grace of God that we have anything good in our lives, any concept of love or joy, any hope for the future.
We deserve none of it, but He is a good, gracious, generous Father who delights to give good gifts to His undeserving children.
It’s called grace, and He is full of it.
STOP.
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Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:Â
Fever’s been consistently high since Saturday, and tonight is over 105.
So my post may be the last one, and the poem too. I hope you’ll drop by.
Won’t be visiting you guys; sorry. But you’re in my heart.
Yes! What’s more, with the comfort we have, we deserve to share our wealth with others! But how often do we do that?
I have a complicated relationship with the word “deserve,” for all the reasons you listed and then some. Deserve implies something can be earned, which is not even part of the conversation when it comes to our relationship with God! I find, at least for me, it’s a matter of where I put my feet: at my own understanding of what’s good or at God’s.
Amen Kate. Wow! I hear you, these truths need to be said without being sugar-coated. Indeed we deserve hell, and by God’s grace, he calls us His. Blessings.
~Selah~
Grace! We don’t deserve it, but what would we be without it!
Amen!