At the beginning of Job’s time of suffering, the scriptures say,” In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly”. However, as the days of Job’s testing continued, and his three “comforting friends” only generated more upset and discomfort, Job fell into the abyss of self-pity. The dictionary defines self-pity as the “self-indulgent belief that your life is harder and sadder than everyone else’s. “
Many times when we fall prey to self- pity, we do not have the discernment to recognize we are feeling sorry for ourselves. Yet it is usually quite easy for us to judge and identify self-pity in others! But until we are willing to stop blaming others for our sad life, and we are willing to look within our own hearts to work out our issues with our Heavenly Father-the controlling grasp of the diabolical foe of self-pity will not turn loose of our souls. When we wallow in this state, we tell ourselves that life isn’t fair, that we’ve got it harder while others have it easy, that bad things always happen to us, and so on. This emotional and spiritual attitude will shut out the truth that God loves us and longs to shape, make, restore, and bring good into our lives in spite of the hard times that have come upon us. Self-pity is often a covering for anger, which keeps us from turning to Jesus, and working on letting go of buried rage that needs to be released onto the Savior. Holding on to these negative emotions will propel us into a settled state of spiritual blindness, hopelessness, and depression. Let us recognize that self-pity is a spiritual and emotional enemy and turn away when this foe comes knocking at our heart’s door. Let us a run back to our Savior, the Lord Jesus, for rescue and recovery….. He is the Faithful One, who has the power to shut self-pity out of our lives and keep us stepping towards the good plans He has established for our destiny.
“So am I allotted months of futile [suffering], and [long] nights of misery are appointed to me.”(Job7:3)
