Here are the symptoms:
They can drain your energy immediately.
They can cloud any meeting sometimes with just their presence and sour attitude.
They can hijack your time, draining hours at a stretch.
They drag you into their daily dramas and crises.
They can burden you with imagined problems, keeping you from ministering to others with more pressing needs.
They love being dependent and in need.
They contribute little or nothing to the Lord's work, being professional complainers.
"One of the clearest signs of a true, malignant spiritual hypochondriac is that the carrier refuses to believe he is infected. Most live in denial, assuming the entire community is conspiring against them. They feel unappreciated, unloved, and misunderstood. They consistently feel betrayed by their friends, ministers, and family. And they never realize their condition."
If you know someone in this condition, or maybe you are suffering from this malady, here are five actions you can take to correct the problem, from the compelling book WHY CHURCHES DIE by Mac Brunson and Ergun Caner (published by Broadman & Holman):
1. Focus on the blessing of God. Make it an obsession to notice the greatness and graciousness of God. In every situation work to discover the hidden positive dimensions rather than dwelling on the problems. Focus on Christ rather than yourself.
2. Change your thought life. Read Philippians 4:8. The term THINK in this verse is an agrarian term that farmers used to describe the method by which a cow chews food. Masticating the food and constantly passing it through their four stomachs, a cow thoroughly chews food. Our thought life is the same. We are commanded to develop the discipline of carefully choosing to concentrate on those edifying things.
3. Surround yourself with joyful believers. Develop relationships with those "ministers of joy" who fill you and lift you to new levels of faith and strength. Remember, their iron will sharpen your iron (Proverbs 27:17)
4. Learn to pray for others. Nothing forces us to get our attention off ourselves more than learning to pray for other people's burdens. The added blessing of seeing God intervene in people's lives is mandated by God. Bearing one another's burden fulfills the law of Christ, according to Galatians 6:2.
5. Get into a ministry now. Christian service not only gives glory to God, but infuses us with a new focus -- a focus on others. Good words for you to consider today.
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