Sulking Sucks!

“Why is thy countenance fallen?” —Genesis 4:6

We all know what sulking looks like.  It ain’t pretty.  Sulking is displaying a sour mood of sullen silence that stems from a disappointment… a frustrated desire… or annoyance when someone cannot have their way.  Closely akin to sulking is pouting and self-pity.  Sometimes it is called “the silent treatment.”

King Ahab is “exhibit A” when it comes to sulking.  After Naboth refused to sell his garden to Ahab, Ahab goes to his house “heavy and displeased… And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would not eat” (1 Kings 21:4). Big baby!

Another example is Cain, sulking over God’s rejection of his fruit stand offering while accepting Abel’s sacrifice of one of his flock.

Sulking is a spoiled child’s response when he cannot get his way.  When my parents wisely wouldn’t let me have my way, I would try to punish them by sulking.  My parents were smart enough not to buy into it.  When I would sulk, I was sent to my room to sulk alone. I remember sitting in my room saying to myself during some of those sulking spells, “I just won’t talk to them again!”  I only ended up punishing myself.  Like bitterness, sulking is a poison you intend for another but end up drinking yourself.

I recently read of one Christian counselor who was asked what was the most eye-opening thing she learned in her classes.  She answered:

“The heart is active, not passive.” Nothing done to you can cause you to sin—The sin you commit is the sin you chose!  Likewise, sulking is a choice. Once it is it kindled in your soul, it needs a constant infusion of self-justification to keep it burning.

    God rebuked Jonah’s sulking over the repentance of Nineveh and said, “Doest thou well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:9).  This is good counsel needed to end a sulking spell.  You must recognize it is not well to sulk!  Sulking is more than a bad mood.  It is a stronghold in the soul that must be cast down!

“Doest thou well to be angry?”  God already knows the right answer, but He want you to reach that answer for yourself.

Quit your sulking and grow up!