Mammon is so pervasive and deceptive that people under it think that requesting one's 'rights' to be respected is something basic and legitimate. That is exactly what the spirit of mammon wants people to think: that they have entitlements to things they perceive to need or want. As a result, it causes people to stop fully trusting that God will provide, and rely on one's human strength.
People under the spirit of mammon are deceived into thinking that there is nothing wrong with desire for earthly things, things of the world. Christians who are under the spirit of mammon justify this desire despite Jesus saying "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world" (Mark 8:36), that God wants us to have our basic needs. While God does provide and His providence is enough, this is stated in a way by mammonised Christians to justify their lust for things of the world.
God does provide, but He does not have. Mammonised Christians treat God as though he promises to give basic material comfort or basic needs for those obedient to Him, but no where does the Bible say this. No where! What is meant by 'basic material comfort' or 'basic needs' is a mere perception, depending on the eye of the beholder.However, the mammonised person sees his basic needs or comfort as a 'right' to which he is entitled to. He does not trust God fully to provide for Him by God's grace, and therefore his flesh lusts after earthly things.
It must be noted that the value of the thing the person perceives to be his basic needs or basic comfort is absolutely irrelevant as to whether one is under the spirit of mammon. As long as one is anxious after any value of earthly things, one is under the spirit of mammon. This is the result of one's flesh yielding to the temptation of mammon. The flesh does not trust God, nor can it trust God because it is idolatrous (Romans 8:7; Galatians 5:20). It resists God's grace and love for the person in the flesh because it has an insatiable lust for that which gives it pleasure.
Jesus said, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment" (Matthew 6:25)? This is a command by Jesus, not a suggestion or advice, which many Christians seem to treat it to be, but a command. He describes how God provides for the rest of His Creation, and then tells His listener's how little faith they have. If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith (Matthew 6:30)?
In Matthew 6:32 of the New International Version Bible, the term 'pagans' who run after all earthly perishable needs is used, and in New Living Translation, 'unbelievers' whose thoughts are dominated by earthly things are used. Such is the life of those who do not trust God, and in not seeking Him, are idolatrous, trusting in earthly things and their own flesh.
All things come from God who provides His followers all of what He believes is best for them. The word 'basic needs' is unbiblical because it suggests a sense of desire of earthly things. Apostle Paul said, referring to earthly things: "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Philippians 3:8). A person in Christ has all his needs, because God alone is sufficient.
A person who believes he has rights is acting to serve his own flesh, through his idolatrous lusts for earthly things. The spirit of mammon tempts people into idolatry, through lack of trust in God, and therefore, trust in one's own flesh which is carnal and wicked. Idolatry is trust in the flesh and therefore the world. To trust the flesh and the world is therefore to love the world. To love the world is to hate God by failing to trust God by believing that it is not up to God to provide, God cannot provide, or resisting God's providence in one's own pride. This is idolatry, blinding a person to the spirit of mammon, such that he believes is entitled to his 'rights'.
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