EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!
MONDAY MARCH 20, 2023.
SUBJECT: THE BANE OF SELF-PITY!
Memory verse: “Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” (Psalm 69 vs 20.)
READ: John 5 vs 2 - 8:
5:2: Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in the Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.
5:3: In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.
5:4: For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool, and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.
5:5: Now a certain man was there, who had an infirmity thirty eight years.
5:6: When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
5:7: The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
5:8: Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
5:9: And immediately the man was made well, took up His bed, and walked.
INTIMATION:
When you are trapped in a problem so long, the tendency is that you lose your faith in the promises of God. Some people become so stagnant in the problem that they forget the promises of God. They become so weary that they are acclimated to their problems. Such people will then fall into the pit of feeling sorry for themselves. That is 'SELF-PITY.' It's dangerously bad! It is not a place for a child of God. Self-pity conquers faith, because it leads to negative confessions when you accept your position or consequences facing you as your fate. It makes you look for man's approval rather than God's direction.
Self-pity is a death that has no resurrection, a pit that has no bottom. Self-pity is a destroying trap, because it has a multiplying effect on your problem. Once you indulge in it, you will develop what I call the 'wilderness complex.' Have you always counted yourself as poor? Have you always regretted your life? Have you always counted yourself as unlucky or felt unfairly treated by God? Have you always felt that God has failed you? Have you always wished you were another person, in another relationship, in another place, and so on? All these are what I called the 'pity-pots.'
There are two common responses to hopelessness: despair and self-indulgence. But we need not act as if we had no hope. Self-pity is so damaging and dangerous that you resort to depending on man rather than God. Your problem becomes a tool for seeking or begging for help from people. And that is what I mean by 'making you seek man’s approval instead of God's direction.’ You live your life at the mercy of others. At any opportunity, you want people to know how bad it is with you, or your family, or your partner, and so on.
In the passage we read today, we saw a man who had an infirmity for 38years, and had abandoned himself in that hospital (Sheep Gate pool), had no hopes of ever getting out of there healed. The man had fallen so deep into the trap of self-pity that his problem had become a way of life. No one had ever helped him, and he had no hope of ever being helped nor healed. The man’s situation looked hopeless, and he had lost faith completely. But no matter how trapped you feel in your infirmities or troubles, God can minister to your deepest needs. As we face difficulties, our proper response should be to trust God and His promises.
One would wonder how Jesus came to that hospital and was interested in only one patient while there were so many patients lying there. Jesus had seen how the man has been self-defeated and lying completely hopeless in his ‘pity-pot.’ He knew the very dangerous situation the man was in that couldn’t help himself nor get help from anybody. The man was so downcast that he lost faith even in God, and Jesus saw that clearly. However, He came to give hope to the hopeless hence He ministered healing to the man.
Don’t let a problem or hardship cause you to lose hope. What that means is your obvious denial of the promise of Christ who said to us, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11 vs 28). A person may be carrying heavy burdens of sin, oppression, persecution, affliction, hardship, or even weariness in the search for God (The list is not all inclusive—not limited to these mentioned areas), but Jesus frees people from all these burdens. The rest He promised in Him is love, healing, freedom, and peace with God. God may even have special work for you to do in spite of your condition, or even because of it.
When you face problems, and people scoff at you, mock, insult, humiliate, and make you an object of citywide gossip, never fall into self-pity. If your situation seems hopeless, determine that no matter how bad things become you will continue to pray. God will hear your prayer, and He will rescue you. When others reject us, we need God most. Don’t ever turn from your most faithful Friend.
When we are completely beaten down, we are tempted to turn away from God, give up, and quit trusting Him. Faith in God is justified even when our situations look hopeless. Faith based on rewards or prosperity is hollow. To be unshakable, faith must be built on the confidence that God’s ultimate purpose will come to pass. Circumstances are never so bad that they are beyond God’s help. We need never despair because we belong to a loving God. We don’t yet know what good He may bring out of a seemingly hopeless situation (Romans 8 vs 28).
Prayer: Abba Father, if life seems hopeless, You are the reason I still have breath in me, if I have lost something, You are the reason I have not lost everything. You are the reason I live and move and have my being. I know the thoughts You have for me, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give me a future and a hope. In You I put my trust, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.
PRAISE THE LORD!
