Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
4 24 2024
I’ve gotten a little older I somehow found a little bit more time in conversation with myself. Talking to myself. Listening to myself. Advising myself. And criticizing myself. Sometimes even affirming myself.
I read that it isn’t a new phenomenon. The great 20th century Welsh preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones addresses the idea: “The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this; We allow ourselves to talk to us… instead of talking to ourselves. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness is life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?
Read that again! How powerful is this?
Lloyd goes on to say. “Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning… You have not originated them, but they started talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you
For me, too often, the early morning voices I hear are tones of distain and judgment. How often have I done something dumb and I speak negatively to myself. You big oaf, or how stupid can you get in still breathe? You clumsy fool. Have you ever opened the car door on your own head? That didn’t go well either. Maybe even as we get a little older something like; I’m really quite useless,
what does it matter to anybody anymore?
How often have you said, “I knew that was going to happen?” I grew up brainwashing myself on Zig Zigler. And he had a clear word for this type of talk. He called it “Stinking thinking”. Do you remember?
What about the flipside of those types of thoughts and remarks? Hey this isn’t like me! I can do better than that! Or NO, I will not succumb to that type of thinking! I am more than a conqueror… I am the head and not the tail! This is only temporary…With God’s grace I can make this right!
(I pray you are listening!)
Perhaps the best collection of this “self conversations exchanges” are found in the book of Psalms. When you read them the next time ask yourself the question… What voice in the psalm is David listening to? And to whom was he talking?. I think in so many cases, these many treasures are often the writings of King David Eavesdropping on himself. Listen to Psalm 55:4 “My heart shutters within me: tears of death sweep over me. Fear and trembling grip me: horror has overwhelmed me. Or how about Psalm 42:11 “Why are you cast down, and why are you in turmoil within me?
WHAT? King David, the man after God‘s own heart, has inside voices… Just like we do? But as often as this happens in the palms, if you stick it out and read them till the end, you will see that the problem is typically solved. All you must do is wait for it. Like Psalm 86:3 “Gracious Lord, to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, oh Lord, do I lift up my soul”.
How often do you hear those voices? This silent agent within tells us we’re old and worthless. Clumsy and incompetent. So, we tell our father about it and here’s what he says in reply. John 15: 9 says,
“As the father has loved me, I have loved you. Remain in my love”.
My mom used to tell me that all the time. Are you struck by the power of this?
You’re a good boy son… I love you.
I have often gone to bed at night thinking about the day. What went wrong,…what I should’ve done and what I need to do tomorrow to rectify it. Typically, these things are negative and there are so many problems to fix. And the tone doesn’t exactly go along with inducing sleep. There’s almost a sense of sadness including some regret over the days failures or tasks left unfinished. Maybe injured relationships or some unfortunate words that I’ve spoken. Or maybe I’m dealing with new aches and pains that are too painful to ignore physically. And it always seems the problems seem larger in the darkness of the evening. Wasn’t that true when we tucked in our kids at night too.
It reminds me of the story of Jesus when he crossed the sea in Galilee, and he was sleeping in the midst of the storm. And the men came to him in panic and said they were about to die! The first thing that Jesus did was not rebuke them. No, he stood up and spoke to the storm… that’s right, he rebuked the storm. He fixed the problem. And then… he asked the man where is your faith? I can just hear that question falling. My faith?… You could probably hear them gulp. And if he could’ve read their thoughts, it would’ve been, “In the dumpster” But the truth is it shouldn’t have been. They were with the one who created the sea and made the winds , and he will take surely take care of us. Right? Isn’t it better to use those types of words to talk TO OURSELVES versus listening to yourself?
My dear friends… We are in a war. A War of Words!
With ourselves!
With the world!
Words…and More Words
And we all make huge mistakes.
We hear these words and then we believe them…We take them in and they become self-fulfilling prophesies. You know that right? Don’t we carry the fear, the anger, and the frustration of them forward to unleash on what familiar poor soul happens to be in our path that day…or that life. Sometimes it become such a cloud…Like Charley Brown…that people we know come to know us in that way!
Friday lets dig into the realities of this war further. Let’s see what Gods word says about talking to ourselves.
Let the weak say… I am strong! Joel 3:10
Let the poor say…I am rich…
Look I am not denying that we might have some physical issues or that we need some real cash now… But it’s only temporary. It isn’t permanent. God has not abandoned us. Your Victory is in your mouth not in your eyes! Prov 11:11 says; “Through the blessings (words) of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed”.
Excerpts taken from the book Gun Lap by Robert Wolgemuth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAiDJZ4cdfA
I have loved you Matt Henry
