Self-pity is one of several self- things from which I ask God to deliver me.
Strangely enough, though, I don’t remember considering that a thankful spirit sweeps away a “negatively self-focused” spirit. Oh, sure, I’ve known (and even taught!) that gratefulness can lift us out of depression and discouragement. But, somehow, I must have missed what being thankful can do to kill being self-pitying.
Then I read Andrée’s piece from yesterday morning, shown here only as the first parts of each of her paragraphs:
An old Christian man said to my friend, “Our biggest problem is self-pity.”
Self-pity must be one of those “designs” Paul had in mind by which Satan “outwits us” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
Name any sin you can think of and it is a seduction into abiding in unreality…
Self-pity is such a delusion that people can even prefer it to joy.
It is only when you have come out of the land of self-pity that you are able to look back in horror at how much time you wasted in unreality.
Let us catch every whiff of self-pity and promptly replace it with thanksgiving.
Now to choose today: self-pity or thanksgiving.
If I choose correctly, it makes even more sense to ask God to help me resist myself.