One option is to go through life thinking about the things you ought to get. This often includes respect that ought to be due to you. Or maybe you're thinking about the breaks that you should get for one reason or another -- the favors the world owes you. It's an easy trap to fall into, especially when we see some of the breaks other people get. If we're just as good as them, then we ought to get those same breaks, right?
One way or another, we learn (usually the hard way!) that we often don't get what we think we should. This is where a firm sense of humility and a grasp of theology helps us see a way forward out of our disappointment.
When we're humble, we can accept that we deserve God's condemnation. We have sinned and fallen short, and in God's eyes, we are no better than the officers striking Jesus for speaking the truth. Because we have sinned and not kept up our end of God's covenant, we deserve the worst.
However, our theology teaches us that because of the free gift of grace that is seen most fully in the life and atoning death of Jesus Christ, we do not get what we deserve, but instead receive the honor that Christ fully deserved for living the perfect and sinless life. Christ gets the punishment we deserve, and we get the honor Christ deserves.
Thanks be to God that we don't get the hell we deserve, and are instead destined for eternal life, because of what Christ has done on our behalf.
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