It's a Pity

Transcript, Christian Working Woman

Have you had any pity parties lately? The strange thing I've noticed is that even though nobody comes to these pity parties and they are miserable downers, we keep having them! Why would we inflict such misery on ourselves?

Recently I was reading Hebrews 12:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

It dawned on me that one of the most common things that hinders and entangles believers and keeps us from running our race is self-pity. Think of how the enemy uses self-pity in our lives. When we are feeling sorry for ourselves, what are some of the usual outcomes?

1 --Almost always, pity parties cause us to waste time. Not long ago I was sorely tempted to throw a pity party. Someone had hurt my feelings, and so I thought, "I'm not going to do anything tonight; I have a right to just do nothing and feel sorry for myself."

Then it dawned on me what was happening: The enemy was trying to hinder me by tempting me to throw a pity party. So, I said–out loud–to the enemy, "Not tonight; no sir, I'm not throwing a pity party tonight." And I just refused to wallow in that self-pity. Believe me, that was a change in the way I have often dealt with hurt feelings.

2 --Not only do pity parties waste our time, they also waste our energy. Self-pity drains you. It is, of course, a very emotional reaction, and you spend a lot of emotional energy when you are feeling sorry for yourself. That means you don't have energy for other things that are important. So, again, pity parties keep you from doing what you should do because you don't have any energy left after throwing that pity party.

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 it grows in importance. In your mind it becomes a lot worse than it really is. You lose your perspective. That, of course, causes you to over-react to it.