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"Preach to yourself"

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For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(Hebrews 4:12 KJV)

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’…

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, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’”

—D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and its Cure (1965).

Comments

  1. Lloyd-Jones always gets right to the heart of things. Here, he is driving the stake where the Gospel, preached and believed, must begin – in each of us, individually. I believe the Spirit yearns within each of us to make this “self-preaching” powerful and life-giving. Somehow, I think this is where our true confidence comes from – to every day humbly preach and rely on the Gospel, in order to bring the same to others with the love of Christ.

  2. Interesting concept, preaching to myself! Isn’t it so easy to affirm others, reveal God’s truth to them? But, when it comes to myself, I’m silent. I must practice this, or as the saying goes “practice what I preach”!
    Thanks & God’s Blessings

  3. Thank you for this message today! I praise and thank God for His timeliness! I woke up this morning with a myriad of thoughts running rampant through my mind which really cause my soul to be down cast. I seek out His word to find comfort and guidance but never thought of self preaching to displace self talk. It is indeed much easier to affirm and exhort others than ourselves. I appreciate Lloyd-Jones’ choice of terms: upbraiding, exhorting, defying oneself. Being a person who tends to lean toward melancholy, I pray that I will be able to take this whole idea of exhortation “self preaching” to heart. I thank the entire Blue Letter team for their work. Thank you for your ministry. It is such a tremendous blessing to me!

  4. Encouraging words!! Thank you.
    How continuously we need to bring our “thoughts captive” so that we can live a victorious life in Christ!
    Preaching to ourselves…..what a novel idea!

  5. Yeah, you know… that just doesn’t work. I keep telling myself what an idiot I am, and doesn’t make me any less an idiot. The focus should be on God who can replace the idiocy with wisdom the foolishness with maturity and the fearful thoughts with hope.

    A couple things come to mind Isaiah 26:3 and Proverbs 6:20-24.

    “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.”

    Okay, when I can see God like that, then the words of David will have impact, power to overcome the situations like returning to Ziklag finding it sacked, your loved ones taken captive and having your closest supporters talk of stoning you. David didn’t preach to himself, he strengthened himself in the Lord. Ps 77; Ps 143; and Ps 61 nkjv (my apologies, but I tuned in a men’s conference over the weekend that had a lot of guys ‘preaching’… and they sounded nothing like David strengthening himself in the Lord).

    • Preaching God’s Word to yourself is exactly what David did; it never returns void.

      No need to apologize, Greg. But the existence of bad preaching does not mean that there should be no preaching at all.

      • All good except the part about condemning yourself. No, Christ doesn’t come to condemn the sinner but to set him free.
        Have you ever thought that maybe the thoughts you think aren’t you at all but …DEMONS? Well don’t just laugh or deride me.
        Try saying to the demons in you, “Come out in Jesus Name”! or bind them from talking. You may have to do it several times before you get them to shut up but if you are a Christian, you have the authority.
        Try it…what do you have to lose? scared?

        • Caroline,

          I think I understand what you are saying, but there is one point I would like to make. Christians cannot be possessed by demons or have demons in them. They can, however, be oppressed – which is from the outside. This is where the Christian can be influenced by a ‘voice’ from the enemy, the deceiver. This is when we can put your advice into action, to bind them in Jesus name and refuse to hear the lies they are spewing. Knowing that we cannot be possessed by the enemy is also another way that we can stand in victory. Do not let the devil possess the land!

          I do believe that we are not condemned in Christ. The bible does say that if we do not believe in Jesus, though, that we are condemned already. (John 3:18) If there is sin in us or something that does not line up with God’s Word, we should condemn that sin/action/thought and rid ourselves of it quickly before it can take root.

          Does that make sense? Let me know if you think I’m off base or missed your point altogether.

          God bless!

    • Chris,

      I’m sorry, but I didn’t say the preaching was bad, just that it wasn’t what David was doing. And the apology was for arguing about words… he may have said ‘preaching’ but meant something else.

      There are a lot of strange doctrines out there and when people rely on them, it’s like Israel relying on Egypt, a reed snapping and piercing the hand (end up doing more harm than good).

  6. Many of us Christians are unaware of who we really are. We see the image in the mirror as the true us. However we must remember we are a new creation, a new spirit being hidden in Christ, seated with Jesus now at the Father’s right hand.
    We need to practise this consciousness daily, every moment of the day. The adversary can still “access” us via our physical sensory organs… eyes, ears, mind, feelings, emotions. That is precisely why we need to be filled with the Spirit and to be feeding from the Word of God daily. IT’s pointless if you know how to talk to yourself if what you talk to yourself is based on the seen realm, worldly inputs. Only the Words out of the Bible is potent. Remember the Word of God is not the Bible but JESUS (john 1:14)The more we let loose scripture verses, the more life we experience and health to our flesh (Prov 4:20-22)

    • Thank you Daniel!

      I loved what Lloyd-Jones offered. It is something I have done without even realizing it (preaching to myself).
      I do get infected by all of my external senses; hearing, seeing, feeling what others in my life say and do. I get bogged down in it sometimes. It is only through my time in His word and being continually filled with HIs Holy Spirit that I know the real truth.
      When I have “preached to myself”, it only through the leading of the Holy Spirit that I have the right words, the Words of God, to say.

  7. I believe what D. Martin-Lloyd Jones has written has so much truth in it. The psalmist says, why so downcast my soul, put your hope in God (Ps.4:5). Sometimes, we have to talk to ourselves, the prodigal son, came to himself, and said to himself, look how many hired servants are in my fathers house, I will arise and go,(Luke 15:8) Jacob, must have talked to himself, when he recognized that he was been ripped off by his father in law (Gen. 29 -20)- Don’t miss the point Greg, there is a place to see who you are or where you are and open your mouth and speak to yourself, that’s how we all came and will come to the Lord, a recognition of our, “nothingness” and the reality of who Christ’s is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and whether we had an audible conversation with ourselves or not, it was a conversation, with yourself, that became a conversation with God. SO PREACH THE WORD OF GOD TO YOUR SELF….IT WORKS. AMEN.

  8. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: BUT DAVID ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD. I Samuel 30:6

  9. Jim, your right, if we focus to ourself we will feel self pity, look unto God and he will show the way.

  10. It’s all about God not us. Dwelling upon ourselves indeed prideful.

    Praying without ceasing to God the Father in Christ Jesus’ name is essential.

    Reading scripture when we feel oppressed by the flesh in us very important.

    What was the thorn in Paul’s side? Habitual sin or oppression of demons?

    Some speculate the 7 demons in Mary Magdalene were habitual and unrepented sins. I’m not sure how I come down on that.

    God prunes us. The Holy Spirit within us the messenger of Christ ur advocate. Putting away our fleshly selves our directive from the Trinity.

    Yes, the world is made up of Satan, his demons, and followers a reality. He was a liar from the start.

    Remember how Satan tempted Jesus in the desert? Lucifer quoted scripture out of context and with his evil twists. We need to be wiser than the snake.

    Quoting the scripture correctly, the truth, the word of Jesus. We must learn daily.

    Wow what a great topic! I come away with some points of each to ponder and look up in scripture. Scripture proving scripture.

    I have printed this and will ask my minister for clarification.

    Blessings to all.