Talk it to Walk it!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones once wrote: "Avoid the mistake of concentrating overmuch upon your feelings. Above all, avoid the terrible error of making them central." Rather, he goes on to urge us, to stop doing so much listening to yourself and start speaking to yourself: "Most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself."

Boy, how true is that! I get into trouble every time when I start cogitating over my feelings and emotions, rather than meditating upon the Truth of God's Word. My feelings and emotions vacillate like the tides at the beach: one moment rising, the next ebbing, leaving the sand ever shifting and uncertain. Is that really what I want to base my life upon--the ebb and flow, up and down, certainty and doubtfulness of my feelings?

Nope--no thank you... though I need to remind myself of this daily--in His Word. James 1:5-8 described it this way: "If any of you lacks wisdom [hello--that would be me: major lacker of wisdom!], let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

Won't that always be the result when we keep listening to and dwelling upon our emotions and our own limited knowledge and understanding? I don't know know the whole story, so how can I possibly make an informed, fully wise decision without all the facts? But I know and worship One who knows ALL and can do ALL. He never runs low, never acts in haste, never lacks every possible facet of information, and never chooses based upon selfish or impure motives of any kind.

So for each of us, rather than listening and acting based upon me, myself, and I, we must choose to start speaking the Truth to ourselves based upon the Truth of God's Word. I've often heard (and repeated) the phrase, "We need to walk our talk," and that is so true. Save us, Lord, from hypocrisy and shallow faith that merely talks a good game but then doesn't live it out on a daily basis.

BUT, maybe we need to add: "We need to talk the Truth first in order to walk it." We need to talk to ourselves and remind ourselves of the Truth of the Gospel on a daily basis before we can then remember to walk it--to live it out in our actions and attitudes. That doesn't necessarily mean "talking" it to everyone else. Rather, we need to first talk about it to ourselves! Speak the Word out loud. Sing it. Recall it. Memorize it. Meditate upon it. And then choose, by the grace and power of the Savior, to live it out, one moment at a time. I can't live it out if I don't remember it. And I can't remember it, if I don't speak it to myself. Out loud, if possible!

Today, might we stop listening to our complaining, our rationalizing, our fretting and instead start speaking the Truth. "Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." (John 8:32) To God, the One who always speaks the perfect and powerful Truth, be all the glory.