Why is it that some people who are going through trials and tribulations, no matter how severe or trivial, intentionally wallow around in self-pity when there are people around to help them??? Seriously, it’s like people are reaching their hands out to them, saying “come with me, I’ll help you out,” but the person who needs help just bites their hand. It’s amazing. I guess it just goes to show that even though their situation may suck, they are complacent where they are at. If someone really wants help, they’re gonna go out and get it.

Which leads me to the main part of my post here. I was realizing that there are a lot of Christians who wallow around in self-pity. That’s like playing with fire. Jesus came to bring us all joy and if we’re not accepting the free gifts of joy, peace and true happiness that He has provided us, we have no reason to profess ourselves as Christians. I think that’s one of the toughest parts of my Christian walk, personally. Sometimes something bad may happen to me, and I feel like there is no one around to help (when the complete opposite is true). I’ll start to pity myself and throw a fit. When I get into prayer and the Word, I realize that’s not God’s way. Jesus made something positive out of every bad situation He was in, so if He dwells in us, why can’t we do the same? Let this be an encouragement for us to focus on the positive in every bad situation. God uses even the worst things that can happen to us, for His glory. Everything that happens on this earth serves a greater purpose in God’s master plan.

This also brings up a bigger topic. I believe that self-pity leads to complacency in the Christian walk. I’ve had too many friends fall victim to complacency, and fall out of the faith. It frustrates me and sickens me to death to see people who were once on fire for God sit around during worship services, not move a muscle, complain that we sing the same songs over and over, and go home completely unaffected by a powerful church service. I’m not here to judge anyone’s spirituality, but physical actions can definitely be a telltale sign of how one is doing spiritually. Honestly, when the Holy Spirit is present in church, how can one sit there completely unaffected and stare off into space, wondering things about their boyfriend/girlfriend, where to go to lunch after service, when can they finally go to sleep, yada yada yada.

So why do Christians — and in this instance, youth especially — fall victim to complacency (the Bible calls it being lukewarm, which is a very dangerous place to be)? The easy answer would be that the church as a whole is not doing their job to reach out to everyone. But as in most easy answers, this is also a wrong answer. The correct answer would be that the person is believing a lie from the devil, plain and simple. Nowhere in the Bible do you find that we can get saved and stop there. We need to press in with our faith and learn more about Jesus at every opportunity. If you’re a lukewarm Christian, it’s better for you to just go right ahead and backslide. Seriously, that’s what the Bible says. Better for someone to all-out serve Satan than to put on a face that they’re serving God. Of course, even better is for you to just turn to Jesus and get some good Christian friends who will support you and be accountability partners with you (more on that later).

So I guess I’m saying I am really sick of seeing people who know the way turn away from God for whatever reason. There is really no excuse for it. It boggles my mind to know that the very God that created us send His Son down to die on the cross for our sins, and yet people reject him left and right — and worse yet, those who had a relationship with him at one point turn away. You can’t give me one good reason for someone who has known salvation and felt the Holy Spirit moving in their life to all of a sudden lose it. The only answer is to grow up, turn back to God, and if you really look at it, there is nowhere else to go but to God anyway. Everywhere else leads to destruction. Serve God by yourself, don’t hide behind someone else, get some good Christian support…we’re all in this fight together.

And it’s because we’re in this fight together that I hate seeing my brothers and sisters go down. I don’t want to see it happen anymore…I’m gonna do the best I can to help my friends make it to heaven. Nothing on this earth matters as much as what will happen once we leave this earth. It’s time we all realized that and started living for God 100%.