How Does God See Self-Pity?

There are many things that will endeavor to steal from our lives and try to hinder our walk of faith with the Lord.  No doubt some may seem to be bigger than others.  One, in particular, is very destructive to our lives.  In fact, many overlook it and think it’s unimportant. In fact some of the best advice you can ever receive concerning this subject is this…Never, ever, ever, under any circumstance, feel sorry for yourself.  This is the way you go down, the way of darkness and not light; of confusion and not peace.

Self-pity occurs when we are feeling sorry for ourselves.  We are upset for what we don’t have or what we don’t know.  How easy it is to fall in this trap of thinking we don’t have as much as others.  It all happens through the deceit of comparison.  2 Corinthians 10:12 tells us of the danger of comparing ourselves with one another.  The peril that occurs when we do this, is this-we stop being thankful.  Thankful for what we have.  Thankful for what God is doing in our lives.  Instead we judge our happiness by what others have.

We see self-pity and its destructive poison all through the Word of God.  One such instance is found in 1 Kings 21 concerning Ahab and a man by the name of Naboth.  Ahab coveted after a vineyard that belonged to Naboth.  Instead of being thankful for the multitude of acres of land he possessed, he got his eyes on what belonged to another man, Naboth.  When Naboth refused to give it to him, Ahab begins to sulk and pout.  Here is a grown man, laying up in the bed when he should be out helping his people. Remember, he’s the king.

When reading this, one may think he was just down.  But, let it be known, what’s happening in that bed right now is going to cost the life of an innocent man.  All this self-pity is eating at him.  You can picture Jezebel saying to her husband, “What’s wrong, baby?”  He mumbles a few words and she understands that Naboth refused to give him his vineyard.  She then says, “I’ll get it for you.”  She proceeds through a number of circumstances to have Naboth murdered. She then tells him after Naboth’s death that the vineyard is now his.

All this occurred because of one wrong thought in the mind of Ahab.  The moment that Ahab received a “No”, was the time he should have said, “Well, it’s yours to do with however you want,” instead of pouting and crying.

Do we see the same things today? Yes!  It’s totally a sign of unbelief in the sight of the Lord.  Some people think if you lay up in the bed and act pitiful, that God will just move on their behalf.  But He won’t!  Realize that God is a faith God, and is never moved by unbelief.  He is touched by the feeling of our infirmities, but that is no sign He will do anything about it.  We must exercise faith, if we are to see Him move on our behalf; and part of faith is living with a thankful heart.

So whenever you are tempted to be unthankful, resist it.  Begin to rejoice in the Lord for all He’s done.  When you are thankful for His blessings, you open yourself up to having more in your life.  Whatever you are thankful for, you receive more.

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