Victimhood: The Devils Crack

[Dave...]

Our flesh nature craves victimhood because it uses it as an excuse to sin. I've seen 'victimhood' used to manipulate people. Even brainwash then.

The world, where ever it is selling anything, almost always uses victimhood to sell it. Hollywood, the music industry, even politicians spoon feed it to us daily. Our flesh can't seem to get enough of it. Need to sell or advance something? Package it with victimhood and it will sell. You see victimhood being used and claimed everywhere. This is spiritual warfare and mans sinful nature feeding off it, to his own destruction.

You've heard the saying that 'a failure to forgive is like drinking poison and waiting for the other guy to die'? Well, that 'poison' is victimhood. It literally rots you from the inside out. I'm not saying to ignore feelings when we've been wronged. I'm just saying to deal with it and move on as fast as you can. Don't hold on to it.

Gods plan...

Count it all joy. He is sovereign and in control. He has a purpose in your circumstances and all His promises apply.

Forgive. Even if it only exists in your own head. Our enemy likes to do that, that is, have you chasing your tail.

Overcome. Put your focus on overcoming. That may be the sole reason you are in your circumstances, as God is building your character and preparing you for more. Remember, we are called to partakers in Christs suffering.


Do these three things and you eliminate much of the Devils arsenal against you. Just obey God as best as you can. Remember, His commandments are there to protect you. Many times from yourself.

Keep this in mind, even fighting against the tendency to indulge in the devils crack. It's addicting to our flesh, and that's what makes it so powerful.

Hope this helps

Dave

BTW, victimhood is not the same as 'poor in spirit', which is the opposite of self righteousness and a good thing. That is, recognizing just how sinful we are in the face of God's holiness.

 

[tdidymas]

Our flesh nature craves victimhood because it uses it as an excuse to sin. I've seen 'victimhood' used to manipulate people. Even brainwash then.

The world, where ever it is selling anything, almost always uses victimhood to sell it. Hollywood, the music industry, even politicians spoon feed it to us daily. Our flesh can't seem to get enough of it. Need to sell or advance something? Package it with victimhood and it will sell. You see victimhood being used and claimed everywhere. This is spiritual warfare and mans sinful nature feeding off it, to his own destruction.

You've heard the saying that 'a failure to forgive is like drinking poison and waiting for the other guy to die'? Well, that 'poison' is victimhood. It literally rots you from the inside out. I'm not saying to ignore feelings when we've been wronged. I'm just saying to deal with it and move on as fast as you can. Don't hold on to it.

Gods plan...

Count it all joy. He is sovereign and in control. He has a purpose in your circumstances and all His promises apply.

Forgive. Even if it only exists in your own head. Our enemy likes to do that, that is, have you chasing your tail.

Overcome. Put your focus on overcoming. That may be the sole reason you are in your circumstances, as God is building your character and preparing you for more. Remember, we are called to partakers in Christs suffering.


Do these three things and you eliminate much of the Devils arsenal against you. Just obey God as best as you can. Remember, His commandments are there to protect you. Many times from yourself.

Keep this in mind, even fighting against the tendency to indulge in the devils crack. It's addicting to our flesh, and that's what makes it so powerful.

Hope this helps

Dave

BTW, victimhood is not the same as 'poor in spirit', which is the opposite of self righteousness and a good thing. That is, recognizing just how sinful we are in the face of God's holiness.

In the Marxist paradigm, the "oppressed vs. oppressor" is a victimhood mentality. It has to be fixed by the Robin-Hood process: redistribution of wealth, make everyone equal in outcome, reparations for the descendants of slaves, punish hate speech, blame white privilege, etc. It's a blame shifting game that people play when they don't want to be responsible for the consequences of their actions.

Indeed, there has to be a distinction made between real victims of crimes and false victims. False victims are those who are victims only in their own imagination. Even when they had been real victims of neglect or oppression in the past. It takes faith (in God or at least in something) in order to overcome the condition of victimhood. If children are resilient on the other side of abuse, why do adults fall into the victimhood trap?

IMO most of the "oppressed" rhetoric is gobbled up by people who want something for nothing, because they are too lazy to overcome their poor condition ethically. If you say "get a job," they will say "no one will hire me." They then get to be victims of some other part of "Society."

People who settle for living in sin are victims of God's neglect. Rom. 9:20 implies that they think "since God made me a sinner, I'll be one." The narrative is "I was born this way, therefore I can't change the way I am." Again, lack of faith and possibly ignorance of Jesus being a healer of the spirit, and one who empowers the overcomer.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Overcome. Put your focus on overcoming. That may be the sole reason you are in your circumstances, as God is building your character and preparing you for more. Remember, we are called to partakers in Christs suffering.

Yes, and welcome back to Christian Forums.

Scripture proves that the godly mentality is the exact opposite of the world's mentality. The Devil trains humanity to be defeatist, but the Spirit of God continually speaks of us as being overcomers, of being more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us, and that no weapon formed against us is going to prosper.

You have pinned the nail on the head as far as the difference between the Spirit that inhabits Christians and the spirit that inhabits this world.

 

[SailorWriter]

Very interesting topic. It is really important to forgive those who wronged us, because if we don't, we will be bitter, angry, and depressed. It is better to trust on God to give us peace and rest admist our pain than wail and act all self-pity.

 

[Tenchi]

Our flesh nature craves victimhood because it uses it as an excuse to sin. I've seen 'victimhood' used to manipulate people. Even brainwash then.

What is God's remedy for the destructive, God-opposing "flesh nature"? Yes, the Christian who is "fleshly," who operates primarily on the physical/psychological level, living by means of their own powers of physical strength, and willpower, and intellect, is attracted to the idea that they bear no responsibility for their choices, attitudes, thinking and conduct. There is no better news for the fleshly sinner than to hear that he is just a helpless victim of his circumstances and biology and cannot, then, be blamed for his condition. God not only denies this is so but has acted to liberate His children from this fleshly sort of living and thinking. Do you know what He has done in this regard? Read Romans 6, Romans 8:1-16, Colossians 2:6-15, Galatians 3:26-27, Titus 3:3-7, Galatians 2:20, etc.

God's way for His children to escape the fleshly trap of victimhood isn't for them to just force themselves not to fall for it, but is to live, by faith, in the truth of who they are as those "in Christ," who by the indwelling Holy Spirit have been made "new creatures" in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19-20; Romans 8:9-14, etc.) and to remain in constant, conscious submission to the Holy Spirit throughout each day (Romans 6:13; Romans 8:14; Romans 12:1; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:7).

The world, where ever it is selling anything, almost always uses victimhood to sell it. Hollywood, the music industry, even politicians spoon feed it to us daily. Our flesh can't seem to get enough of it. Need to sell or advance something? Package it with victimhood and it will sell. You see victimhood being used and claimed everywhere. This is spiritual warfare and mans sinful nature feeding off it, to his own destruction.

As tdidymas has already pointed out, this is all just the neo-Marxist (i.e. "Woke Progressivism") plan to make North America - really, the entire democratic West - communist. Both the American Christian apologist, Frank Turek, and the atheist social commentator, Dr. James Lindsay, have excellent things to say about this Marxist re-working of western culture. Check out their respective channels on YouTube:

New Discourses (Dr. James Lindsay)
Cross Examined (Frank Turek)

You've heard the saying that 'a failure to forgive is like drinking poison and waiting for the other guy to die'? Well, that 'poison' is victimhood. It literally rots you from the inside out.

Victimhood is poisonous, yes, but Christians consume it because they are fleshly, rather than "walking in the Spirit" as God has commanded them to do in His word (Galatians 5:16, 25).

Count it all joy. He is sovereign and in control.

We are never enjoined in Scripture to delight in pain itself, or trouble, but to be comforted and even joyful that God is working to make us all more and more like Jesus in every circumstance we are in.

Romans 8:28-29
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

What is the "good" toward which God is making all things "work together"? Paul says in verse 29: "to be conformed to the image of His Son." And so, we may "count it all joy" when we suffer because we know that in any and everything God can (and will, if we let Him) work to form in us the "image" of his Son. The apostle Paul described this principle at work in his own suffering:

2 Corinthians 4:7-11
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

The Christian who would decry their self-inflicted, painful circumstance, blaming others for it entirely, is both "fleshly" in this attitude and missing out on the opportunity to be progressively transformed by God into the image of His Son. What a terrible shame! There is no higher, better, more eternally useful end to which a Christian can move than to be more and more like Jesus! The victimhood mentality totally prevents this transformation.

Forgive. Even if it only exists in your own head. Our enemy likes to do that, that is, have you chasing your tail.

Amen. Bitterness and resentment are just traps, prisons, in which the embittered are caged - until they forgive and forget. It is never in the nature of God to hold onto resentments and hurts and take up bitterness toward another.

Overcome. Put your focus on overcoming. That may be the sole reason you are in your circumstances, as God is building your character and preparing you for more. Remember, we are called to partakers in Christs suffering.

By what means, exactly, does one "overcome"? If a believer attempts to do so by fleshly means, by means of their physical strength, human will-power and/or intellect, they will only produce a fleshly result (Galatians 6:7-8; Romans 8:5-8; Galatians 5:17) which leads unavoidably to corruption, sin and death! Like begets like.

The reality spiritually for the born-again believer is that they are all already, in Christ, from the moment of their conversion, "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37; 1 John 5:4-5). In him, more specifically in the Person of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9; Philippians 1:19), they have been made "dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ" (Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 3:3) and liberated from the source of all their sin, the spiritually unregenerated "old Self." What remains is for the born-again person to learn to stand by faith in the truth of their victorious position in Christ and live in constant submission to the control of the Holy Spirit. By this means, over time, the believer comes to live as an "overcomer" in his/her daily, practical experience.

Do these three things and you eliminate much of the Devils arsenal against you. Just obey God as best as you can. Remember, His commandments are there to protect you. Many times from yourself.

God doesn't want "our best"; our best is not good enough.

Conduits, not Copyists.

Isaiah 64:8

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