When we are not loved in this world because of our love for Christ and His principles we need not be emotionally distracted, we have the One Who created us living inside of us, that is Jesus Christ.
Matthew 10:21-23 "…21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. Truly I tell you, you will not reach all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.…" We are free to remove ourselves from those who reject Christ and who reject us.
When no one has our back and no one cares if we exist, there is One Who is always with us, loves us more than any person, and knows perfectly our needs, that is Jesus Christ when we became born-again.
The reason we can laugh inside at the antics of the narcissist, not taking seriously their tactics and maneuvers we can live in emotional and Spiritual freedom knowing Christ IN us sees everything and cares about it.
If we can see our life in Christ as a training ground, a Spiritual BootCamp, we will not be affected by the foolishness of the narcissists in our lives.
We are on this earth for three reasons, to love and glorify God, to learn to obey His commands and to become wise so that we may be of service to Him.
We cannot become wise without trials and difficult people coming in and out of our lives. We are commanded not to remain friends with those who do not love God or people who attempt to ruin our walk with Christ. We must also limit our time with foolish people who say they are Christians but violate His principles as well as spurn them when challenged by those who love Christ.
Proverbs 13:20
"He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm."
We have to interact with the world as we take care of daily needs and do our jobs but we do not have to be their close companions. We can love them by sharing the gospel and treating them respectfully, and praying for them.
An acquaintance in the world is far different from a close companion who walks the same path and loves God as we do. It is not easy to find those who love God even in the modern church, but we can walk alone at times if we have to until the Lord guides us to our next assignment.
Romans 12:2
"2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
"Wisdom is having good judgment based on knowledge" as one person put it. We cannot be wise without God's knowledge from His word. Many people change God's word to fit their own desires. These people cannot be wise because their wisdom is based on selfish desires rather than what God actually said.
Those who love their pleasures will be continually angry with those who see them for what they are, that is immature musings.
I recently heard about an 80 years old man who could not give up his "parasailing", He jumped off of a mountain in one of these devices, it faltered and he fell to the bottom of the mountain seriously broken. He had to be lifted out and taken to the hospital for a lengthy stay to heal all his injuries.
The first response I felt in my Spirit was that this was a very foolish act. An 80-year-old man jumping off of a mountain for a momentary thrill seemed imprudent considering all the following things that came to mind.
My first thought, because I am a wife, was how worried this man's wife was because he was going to do this childish act. My next thought was he should have been wiser at his age knowing his body was not youthful anymore and that perhaps he thought he had something to prove to the world.
Then my next question was, "Who was this man thinking of when he threw himself off the mountain?" The answer was clear he was thinking only of himself without regard to his wife who worried and then had to take care of him when he was injured.
Sadly a younger man in his 60s stated that he admired the man who jumped off the mountain. I was aghast that someone of this age would not have the wisdom to be able to admit that a pleasurable act that could take his life and would torment his wife could be completely selfish. What was there to be admired?
Jumping off of a mountain at 80 years old for a momentary thrill doesn't seem like anything to be admired. But that's just me!
Also sadly, the 60 years old man who admired the old man, was speaking this foolishness in front of his children who saw him endorse actions of thrill-seeking no matter who else was hurt by it.
Even more sad was that this 60-year-old man didn't consider his silly remarks when it came to his own children. This man liked thrills too without regard to the scriptures that counsel us to grow up and act like mature adults.
1 Corinthians 13:11
"11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I [a]became a man, I did away with childish things."
Foolishness should not come out of the mouth of a man who had been a Christian for 45 years. If someone has not grown emotionally and Spiritually in all those years one has to wonder if they ever became born-again.
The love of thrills is a strong indicator that someone is not content with just normal living and loving others. When we love Christ we are joyful and secure in life as God brings it to us. All of us have done things in our life that were play oriented. It is one thing to do a pleasurable thing once or twice in our lives and quite another to live a constant lifestyle of play.
Proverbs 21:17
"Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich."
Not everyone who loves pleasure will be financially poor, but they will all be spiritually and emotionally poor. The need for continual pleasure-seeking shows a dirth of emotional maturity.
Even more sadly those who refuse to grow up will be a terrible example to the youth about what an emotionally mature Christian life looks like.
Pleasure is like drugs, it is addictive, the more someone plays the more they desire it, and the older they become doing pleasure the more discontent they become when they are no longer able to engage in their unrestrained delights.
As born-again believers, we will be seen as boring and lacking in adventure. Those who are pleasure-seeking will hate those who have no interest in such things.
Personally, I cannot think of anything more boring than playing continually or seeking after things that make me acceptable to the immature youth of our day.
If you are anything like me you understand how satisfying it is to finish a home project and sit back with a cup of coffee to rest after all the work. I need nothing more than this to make me happy.
Psalms 90:17
"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands."
If our work is our pleasure then we need no other thrill-seeking pleasure to satisfy us.
The more one seeks for worldly thrills the more addicted to them they become and the more discontent when they cannot do them. Narcissists are discontent people, they cannot sit still just to enjoy their labor, they must have a thrill that most other people don't do to prove to themselves and others their value.
When we have no interest in proving ourselves to others we lose the desire to show off and are able to get on with the pleasure of living life to please God, by doing our work as unto Him.
Colossians 3:23-24
"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. Work As Unto The Lord."
When we realize we will never fit into the world, that the world will not like us and that it will think we are strange and boring, is when we are free to be content with what God gave us to do without regard for how anyone thinks about it. Only HE matters!!!!
