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If you went to a doctor today and he told you something you are doing is going to shorten your life and cause you great physical harm, would you not be willing to listen to his advice and abandon that destructive behavior? I’ve been examining self-inflicted suffering. We’ve seen how bitterness, self-pity, lack of discipline, and negativity are always self-inflicted and cause us great harm.
Why do we so often do things that inflict great suffering on ourselves as well as on others? I think, first, because we often aren’t aware of what’s happening. We allow ourselves to be drawn into these destructive behaviors before we realize where we’re heading. Therefore, we need to pray for awareness and discernment.
Sometimes we choose to continue in our destructive behavior because we feel we have a right—a right to be bitter, or lazy, or negative, a right to have a pity party. Just ask yourself: “Isn’t life tough enough without making your own life tougher?”
When I find myself embroiled in this kind of self-destructive behavior, I try to catch myself, stop, and ask: “Why are you thinking of wrongs done to you? Why are you feeling sorry for yourself? Why are you focusing on negative things? Why are you refusing to be disciplined? Don’t you realize what this is doing to you?” If you and I can just catch ourselves in this self-destructive behavior, we will make our own lives so much more pleasant and productive.
But a much higher motivation, and one that is far more important, is our privilege to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ in our world. When we get rid of these self-inflicted sufferings, we are freed up to be more like Jesus, more pleasing to him, a brighter light in a dark world.
Someday we’ll stand before Jesus to give an account for how we lived our life here on earth. I don’t want to hear that my life was not as effective as it could have been because I insisted on feeling sorry for myself, or being bitter, or being undisciplined, or staying negative. Remember, you can get rid of any of these any time you’re willing to let God empower you to do what you need to do.
