Preaching to yourself

                            Food for weekend thought on preaching to yourself--
        Loved these words from Paul David Tripp--and I know I've shared them before, but don't we all need reminding?  I know I sure do.  So here are his thoughts--
           "Every day you preach to yourself some kind of gospel--a false 'I can't do this' gospel or the true 'I have all I need in Christ' gospel...No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do.  It's a fact that you and I are in an endless conversation with ourselves...We either preach to ourselves a gospel of aloneness, poverty, and inability or the true gospel of God's presence, power, and constant provision.  You are preaching to yourself a gospel that produces fear and timidity or one that propels you with courage and hope.  You are preaching to yourself of a God who is distant, passive, and uncaring or of a God who is near, caring, and active.  You are always preaching to yourself a gospel that causes you to rest in His wisdom or a gospel that produces a bit of panic because it seems as if there are no answers to be found.
             Today, when it feels as if no one understands, what gospel will you preach to you?  As you face physical sickness, the loss of a job, or the disloyalty of a friend, what message will you bring to you?  When you are tempted to give way to despondency or fear, what will you say to you?  What life seems hard and unfair, what gospel will you preach to you?...
              It really is true--no one talks to you more than you do.  So God in His grace has given you His Word so that you may preach to yourself what is true in those moments when the only one talking to you is you."
        What a good and true word!  We all have running conversations going on in our heads, and the words we habitually speak to ourselves determine the condition of our hearts.  It's remarkable how quickly I can drag myself down--all by my little lonesome--by focusing on the enemy's lies as opposed to God's Truth.  And there is such enormous power in our thoughts and our words.
        Duh, you say.  But here's the thing--we know it, but so often we fail to practice it.  We daily, hourly, minute by minute have the choice: will we preach to ourselves God's Truth and His words that bring life, hope, joy, peace, and wisdom?  Or will we default to negative, destructive, discouraging, ungrateful words that tear down rather than build up?
       Proverbs 18:21 says that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits."  And Matthew 12:37 warns "For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."  Yes, these apply to whether we use our tongues with others as instruments of blessing or condemnation.  But they also apply to the words we speak to ourselves.  Because as Tripp says, no one speaks to you more than you.
        Might we preach to ourselves--and to others--the Truth of God's strength-filling, hope-infusing, life-giving Word.
        To God be the glory.