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SELF-PITY
God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome.
10) Always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be shown
forth by and in our bodies.
11) For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is
liable to death.
2 Corinthians 4:10, 11 |
It is no longer a question for us of being saved from hell, Jesus did that. It is about being saved in order to manifest the life of the Son of God in our mortal flesh. You must
keep yourself fit to let the life of the Son of God be manifested, and you cannot keep yourself fit if you give way to self pity. Our circumstances are the means to do this. They
are the vehicle in which we can manifest how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. Every new circumstance whether it is good or bad ought to make our
heart beat for it is a new way of manifesting the Son of God. We look to God who is all powerful, not to the puny problem that is before us.
If you really understood this you would never, ever choose self-pity over the life God gave you. Every circumstance is brought before you and allowed by God's own hand and you
have a decision to make. Your attitude of heart chooses your actions. Your attitude of heart forces you to make a choice and to take an action. You can choose to believe God's Word
what He has said to you or you can choose the attitude of sin: your old way of taking action. Is the old way to say "I can't do it" or "I'm not worth it" or "It's not fair"? What
is it you decide in your mind when you are confronted with a given circumstance? That it is hopeless? Or they don't care or even to judge another? It is your attitude of heart that
forces your mind to that decision or choice. Do you begin to see now that in your heart you are in disbelief of God and His Word to you? You bring that attitude of sin into your
mind and thoughts and the action you take soon follows. It is sin at the beginning (disbelief) and it is sin as a result wither it be self-pity or pride or any other sin.
How do you change this? How do you change your attitude of heart?
By force.
Strive to enter by the narrow door [force yourselves through it], for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.
Luke 13:24 |
In Romans 12:1-3 we are commanded to "renew our mind."
First you must recognize that you have no business with where God engineers your circumstances. We hear God and step out of the boat and then self consideration enters in and
down we go. If you debate for a second when God has spoken, it is all up. Never begin to say "Well, I wonder if He did speak?" You make a decision to believe God and you take
action and never take your eyes off Jesus or the rebuke will come, "Wherefore didst thou doubt?"
Let the circumstance be what it may, but you keep your eyes on Jesus, you keep recognizing Jesus. Maintain complete reliance on Him. Force yourself, make it so and then as you do
this again and again it becomes a habit in that area of your life.
God tells you to speak up during a meeting and speak what is on your heart (some of you God is telling you to be quiet and quit spouting all that great "wisdom" you think you
have). Do it, force yourself, and let God have His way until it is habit.
We get rebuked for our pride and then we immediately jump into self-pity because our pride is hurt. Oh, the others may think I am not this intelligent perfect person, oh poor me
I will never get it right and how can I repair this damage to my image. It is not about you or them, it is about God, get your eyes off yourself. Do it, force yourself to die to
yourself, make it a way of life, a habit you don't even think of. Let it become that engraved in you.
4) By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and
corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
5) For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy),
and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),
6) And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop]
godliness (piety),
7) And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.
8) For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
(the Messiah, the Anointed One).
2 Peter 1:4-8 |
We are made partakers of the Divine nature through the promises (verse 4). This being true we have to learn how to "emulate" the Divine nature in our human nature. We do that by
forming habits and the first habit to form is the realizing the provision God has made. He has made provision for your soul. He has made provision for everything in your life.
Self pity will stop that, self pity will kill that.
God, our Father will tax the last grain of sand orbiting the remotest star to bless us if we will obey Him. What does it matter if external circumstances are hard? Why should
they not be! If we give way to self pity and indulge in the fleshly luxury of misery (oh, poor me), we banish God's riches from our lives and hinder others from entering into His
provision. Self-pity obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. We open our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become spiritual sponges. No sin is worse than
self-pity.
God will impoverish us, that is everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him. Let God dry you up until there are only dry
bones left and then He can speak life to you.
If we are not manifesting the life of Jesus, God holds us responsible. Learn the habits that lavish the grace of God on others. You are not still here on earth for you, you are
here for God and God is here for others.
"Add" (2 Peter 1:5) means there is something we have to do: to stretch forth. We keep forgetting that we cannot do what God does and that God will not do what we can do.
Self-pity is one of the main weapons that our enemy uses to stop us.
God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk in truth or on the strait path any more than He will brush our teeth for us. We have to
do all that ourselves; we have to "work out our salvation" that God has worked in.
Add means to get into the habit of doing things. To take the initiative. Quit asking the way when you know it perfectly well. When God speaks be resolute and stop hesitating and
take the first step. Act in faith immediately on what He says. Get your mind of off self and you won't have time to pity it.
Jesus said "come unto Me." Not "do this" or "don't do that" but "come unto Me."
If you will come to Jesus your actual life will be brought into accordance with your real desires and you will cease from the sin of self-pity and actually find the joy of the
Lord.
Jesus Christ is the touchstone. The attitude of coming is that the will resolutely lets go of everything and deliberately commits all to Him. It is abandonment to your Lord. If
you realize that it is God Who engineers your circumstance, there would be no whining and no "poor me" but you would give, abandon to Jesus all. Abandon immediately, be reckless,
and fling it all out on Him. It is only in this reckless abandonment that you recognize Him and as you keep doing this you will recognize Him more clearly.
Jesus said "I will give you rest." Not "I will put you to bed and hold your hand and sing you to sleep." But instead, "it is I that will get you out of bed, out of the state of
being half dead while you are alive and I will infill you with the Spirit of life and you will be kept in vital activity."
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and
well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7 |
With all the things God has done in each of our lives do we really want to keep on disbelieving Him? Do we really want to indulge ourselves even for a little while in the most
damning sin of self-pity any longer?
Next time you think about pitying yourself ask where is the majestic vitality and might of the Son of God in choosing that?
Please feel free to contact us with any questions about this article.
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible.
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