Self-Pity – Slaying the Giant
Self-pity is a direct rejection of God’s control. It is saying, “I don’t like what you’ve done in my life, and I absolutely will not be content! I can’t change it, so I’ll just be angry and miserable. John Younts
We have all experienced events in our lives that have caused pain and hardship. This can be the result of harm done to us. The result of a real or perceived injustice perpetrated against us. The result of health and financial struggles. We may also have experienced some form of discomfort or discontent. We feel we are missing out on the comforts and desires we feel we deserve. Or perhaps others, or even God, are not doing things the way we would like. These things can either drive us to God and surrender to His sovereign will for our lives, or they can cause us to drift away from what He intends for us. When we drift away from what God, in His sovereignty, wants to do in and through our lives, we feel a kind of righteous indignation. We feel we’ve been wronged in some way. We sulk, and we succumb to self-pity.
We can liken self-pity to a wart that is left unattended. If the virus that causes the wart isn’t treated, the wart will continue to grow and cause irritation and aggravation. When we leave self-pity unchecked, it will continue to feed off our pride, discontent, ingratitude, greed or selfishness and start to weigh us down. We develop a sense of entitlement that puts the focus on ourselves and not on God. We become blinded to reality and develop a “woe is me!” mentality. When we wallow in self-pity, its ugly tentacles extend into every area of our lives, negatively influencing those we come into contact with.
Slaying Self-Pity
We do not have to wallow in self-pity. God has given us the weapons with which we can slay the giant of self-pity by strategically targeting the things that feed our self-pity. Slaying the giant of self-pity begins with giving our self-pity to the Lord, repenting and asking Him to forgive us. It begins by being convicted of those things (pride, discontent, ingratitude, greed or selfishness) that may be causing us to wallow in self-pity.
The riches of God’s grace that He lavished upon us made a way for us to be forgiven when He sent His son to die on the cross for us (Ephesians 1:7-8).
God is a gracious and merciful God and will forgive us. 1 John 1:9 NIV says,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
We will continue with the topic of self-pity in the coming days.
If God did not forgive the Christian who confesses and turns away from sin, God would become unrighteous by holding in contempt Christ’s atoning work, whose purpose was to uphold God’s glory. Daniel Fuller
Reflection
Reflect on the things in your life that might be causing you to feel sorry for yourself and wallow in self-pity. Think about the impact this might be having on those close to you.
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, You see the things that are causing me to succumb to self-pity. Lord, I surrender them to You. Forgive me for harbouring these negative thoughts and allowing them to feed my self-pity. Thank You for the grace that You have lavished on me. Help me to move from self-pity to trusting Your sovereign hand in my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
