Preaching to Yourself February 1, 2010
I woke up this morning like most mornings. Things never look very good to me in the morning. I’m not sure why. So this morning as I sat down to read my Bible I didn’t know where to start. I’m reading through the Bible this year, but today’s chapters in 1 Kings didn’t look very encouraging to my bad mood. Neither did Ecclesiastes. So I read some Psalms. That’s what I needed. Most of them were by David, and in some of the ones I read this morning, David was preaching to himself. Telling his soul to “give thanks to the Lord,” reminding himself who God is, and telling himself to hope in God.
All of that reminded me of a quote I heard on a Family Life Today podcast. I don’t remember the original author, but the words are encouraging.
“Most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you’re listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself. The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, you must say to your soul, ‘Hope thou in God,” instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. You must go on to remind yourself of God. Who He is, what God is, and what God has done and what God has pleged Himself to do.”
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9
Don’t listen to your heart. Preach to yourself the truth of God. Let His words of life refresh your soul.
Believing the Truth January 30, 2010
“When you receive a gift do not insult the gift or the giver.”
That’s not a verse from the Bible, but God used it to speak to me this week. Those words caused me to think about my attitude toward God as a giver and the gifts He has given me.
Honestly, most of the time it is easiest for me to have an ungrateful heart toward God. I can always think of something I want right now that I don’t have. Then I think of good things that God has given me that I don’t want because I want something better.
Thinking this way does (at least) two things. I start to believe God is keeping something good from me, and I start to believe that God doesn’t really know what is good for me because He gave me the “wrong” gifts.
“A lie believed as true will affect our lives as if it were true.”
When I believe those two lies as if they are true then I can’t see God for who He really is. It affects my relationship with God.
I decide in my heart that since God hasn’t given me the things I want or since He has given me things I don’t want then He must not love me like He says He does. Or He isn’t really good like He says He is. Or like Eve I believe that He is keeping something good from me. I believe I have somehow earned these good things from God and He owes me.
These are all lies that I am believing are true. But the best news ever is that I don’t deserve any of it, and He gives it to me anyway! In fact, I deserve death, but He has given me life!
When my thinking starts to turn to lies I need to hear and believe the truth of God. God does not change. His love for me never fails, and he is always good. He has always been and always will be a Father who knows how to give good gifts to his children. And because of Jesus I can know that I am his child.
What lies do you believe about God? Don’t let yourself be decieved with lies. Find the truth that can set you free from those lies. Live in the Word of God.
