It's so easy to get caught up in self pity when things go bad. All around us we see and hear advertising that tells us life and we are to be so beautiful --- and if it's not that way, it's hard not to whine about it.

Self pity is an awful world to live in. I see it as a kingdom and it's a dark evil one with muck and mire like quicksand and dark caverns of dungeons with wailing and grief and guilt. It's such a low place to live because it's a domain that is beneath the earth. We are doomed to a life of depression if we live there.

We have a choice. We don't have to live in that kingdom or even visit.

There are evil spirits who stand at the edge of the entrance to this kingdom. They call to us with all the familiar temptations:

" Poor baby - withdraw - come to me"
" You're not being treated right - come to me"
" Things never turn out good for you - come to me"
" You'll never be able to have true joy - come to me"
" Life's not fair, so don't play in the game - come to me"
" You've been told you'll never amount to anything. They were right - come to me"

Temptaion is not sin. We will always be tempted. It keeps our spiritual muscles strong. If we laid in bed for months we couldn't use the muscles needed to walk. Life will never be without trials, but Jesus died so that we could overcome through His blood.

The entrance to the kingdom of self pity is right by the meadows of joy and peace that God provides for us, but sometimes it seems so hard to walk in a meadow when life has become such a valley. Christ died so that we could always walk in the sunlight and the meadows of fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We have to make that choice though. The same as people make a choice on whether to accept the gift of salvation, we need to make the choice to accept the gift of victory. We have to speak the Word to activate the power in His resurrection.

Sometimes people drift through various Scriptures and try to remember too much for those times of temptation. Ask God to give you a Word for what you need. We all have different reasons for slipping away from the Light .... but the Word is to hold us steady in His Kingdom. You can memorize and jab at the devil with one Scripture. It doesn't get old and it never gets dull.

That Sword will always keep the enemy at bay and we will always have the strength to continue to fight if we rely on God's strength and not our own. Choose the meadow full of bright yellow flowers with birds and butterflies and horses to carry us swiftly away from the darkness of sin. There is room to dance in the meadow! He turns our mourning into joy and dancing.

In the kingdom of self pity we can't hardly move with our feet sunk in the mire. The instant we allow any self pity to enter in, it's like our feet have been grabbed and set in drying concrete. It's so much work to get back out.

We get to choose which Kingdom we live in. In the USA we have freedom to move where ever we want to go. We can choose a state or city and go to live there. In the spiritual realm we get to chose where we live also. Our lives are actually guided by our spiritual choices because we are spirits - that live in a body and have a soul [mind will and emotions]. We have to remember that these body are temporary. We have been created as a spiritual being above all else to fellowship with God, The Creator.

Our spiritual choices will determine our health and even our choices of where we live and work. When we choose the Self-Pity Kingdom ruled by a legion of unloving spirits we attract the same environment around us on a physical level.

We get the muck and mire of life in our homes and our jobs and our relationsips and we look around in self pity and say, "Life is hard and painful, so why bother to pull myself out again. I just get thrown back in." It's really a choice. We have so much more power than we realize because we listen to the devil instead of God.

Deut. 30:19 - "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants."

Ps 16:11 - "You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."

Take God at His Word and seek His face. Maybe the first step is to realize that life doesn't have to be perfect or according to our plan for it to be good. It's not about ME -- it's about JESUS. James 1:2 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." Are we even attempting to obey that Scripture? With the world around us shouting that all needs to be wonderful for us, it's certainly a challenge.

I pray that we will redefine what makes life good for us. That we can catch the vision of what God has for us and that it's not about what I want, but about what God allows into my life to exercise my muscles so I will be spiritually strong for what He has put me on earth to do.

" Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. " Romans 15:13