Let’s Get Rid of Self-Inflicted Suffering!
Printer-friendly version
Send to friendIs the suffering you’re going through now self-inflicted?
Here are a few of the more common ways we inflict suffering on ourselves:
Bitterness
Bitterness is the result of keeping a record of wrongs done against us. It comes from refusing to forgive. It happens when we continually re-live how our feelings were hurt, how our pride was damaged, how our toes were stepped on.
Bitterness will:
- change your physical appearance—and not for the better. Proverbs 15:13: "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit." What is on the inside of you will eventually be revealed on the outside of you.
- ruin relationships. It just spills over to everybody around.
- shorten your life because it adds extraordinary amounts of stress and fatigue.
- sap your energy and keep you exhausted
Hebrews 12:15: "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
Self-Pity
Pity parties are pitiful because:
- they cause us to waste time.
- they waste our energy.
- they adversely affect our performance.
You can shut down your pity party any time you choose to. It's self-inflicted suffering and nobody can make you keep feeling sorry for yourself if you don't want to.
Lack of Discipline
Discipline is the necessary path to success and achievement, and if you're not willing to put needed disciplines into your life, you are inflicting some costly suffering on yourself. Here are some areas where lack of discipline is harmful to us:
- Poor eating habits
- Lack of exercise
- Poor work habits
- Laziness
Negative Attitude
Nothing is more harmful to you that being a negative person. Here's the cure for negativity: thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
You are the only one who can decide to make the changes that will stop the suffering you're causing yourself. There's no shifting blame here, because you can at any time you choose to stop inflicting these things on yourself.
