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.
