Focus: Leave Yourself Alone!

Text: Ps.40:12

"For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me."

Innumerable evils. Iniquities of incalculable proportions. Heart failure as a result of inward turmoil, mental agitation, tension or anxiety. On top of that, the psalmist says, "I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long" (Ps.38:6). And again, he says, "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow" (Ps.116:3).

The greater trouble of life is not hinged on what happens to you, but on how you respond to it. 

When faced with trouble, you let the emotions get the better part of you. You let sentiments take control of your mental faculties. You worry so much about yourself. You stress yourself out. You trouble yourself a lot. You keep adding to your plight and increasing your pain. You hate a lot about yourself. You find it difficult to forgive yourself or let go of things that weigh you down. You hurt yourself unnecessarily. You inhibit and limit yourself and make plenty excuses about yourself.

You bother too much about yourself. You pity yourself for not being where others are. You feel helpless, hopeless and powerless. You lament all the time about what you don't have, beat yourself up, think too low of yourself, talk down on yourself, and even wish yourself death.

Job says, "I am a burden to myself… My breath is strange to my wife…," and he cursed the day he was born. The Scripture says, "After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day."

When Jesus Christ prayed, "Father, forgive them," Judas was included in that prayer, but he couldn't forgive himself, and so he went on to hang himself. He took his own life. Dejection and self-rejection are destructive.

Looking at the plight of Judah in the days of her captivity, Jeremiah said, "I am become vile." The psalmist said, "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people" (Ps.22:6).

It's about the time you changed your attitude and language. 

At the time when men are cast down by medical reports, emotional stress, and circumstantial matters, learn to say, "There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person" (Jb.22:29).

Say like Habakkuk, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab.3:17,18). Say with the psalmist, "When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Ps.61:2). Again, say to yourself, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth" (Ps.121:1-2).

Bear in mind that the bad things people say about you are not enough reason for you to write yourself off. You may be worse than what people think or say about you, but that changes nothing about how God sees or regards you.

And for those who give themselves to talking about others, learn from a past sage who said that there's something bad in the best of us, and something good in the worst of us, so that it becomes unbecoming when some of us talk about the rest of us.

Apart from you leaving yourself alone, there's need too, for others to leave you alone. Jesus says, "Let her alone; why trouble ye her?" (Mk.14:6). People are fond of making assumptions and arriving at premature conclusions about those facing unpleasant and unpredictable circumstances. They are either thinking that it's all your fault or that you are cursed.

The wise preacher says, "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion" (Ecl.9:4). So go easy on yourself. Recalibrate and regain momentum and focus. There's so much to live for. What's in front of you is better than what's behind you. I declare with clarity and audacity that your future is looking good, and it is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1Cor.2:9). Leave yourself alone! Free yourself! Breathe! God has ways of turning even our mistakes into miracles if we let Him. Have faith in God that your sorry story will eventually and ultimately turn into the best of stories. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter