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PROGRAM D-7578
Have you had any pity parties lately? If so, you might need to “get over it.”
Think of how the enemy uses self-pity in our lives:
(1) Almost always, pity parties cause us to waste time.
(2) Not only do pity parties waste our time, they also waste our energy.
(3) Have you noticed this? When you throw a pity party, your imagination runs wild. You start thinking about what someone has done or what has happened, and in your mind it becomes a lot worse than it really is. That, of course, causes you to overreact to it.
(4) Then what often happens is that relationships are damaged. When we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, we often say and do things that hurt others, things we regret later on. But once those things are said and done, it may be too late to undo the damage. Self-pity can cause irreparable damage to relationships.
(5) Another inevitable result of self-pity is that it affects our performance. We slow down, we lose motivation, we do our work halfheartedly—or, what often happens is we quit! In our jobs we may not have the luxury of quitting, so instead our work habits deteriorate.
These are just some of the common results of pity parties. Do you see why I say that we should get over pity parties? But how do we do that?
(1) Change your attitude about pity parties. Ask God to give you holy anger about pity parties, to see them as he sees them, and to get sick and tired of feeling sorry for yourself.
(2) Think about Jesus and all that he endured. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus . . .” By a set of your will, stop thinking about poor me, and think about Jesus—fix the eyes of your heart on him.
(3) Get busy doing something constructive. Don’t just sit there; do something! This is one time you need to get involved in constructive activity that will take your mind off of your hurt feelings and shut down that pity party.