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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Talk To Yourself
ByThere is this idea that talking to yourself is crazy. But it’s not. In fact, it’s one of the most genius things you can do.
I found this out for the first time in high school when I read through the Psalms. In
Psalm 42
Book Two
Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (ESV)
, the writer is definitely depressed. He says that “My tears have been my food day and night…” He has enemies asking him, “Where is your God?” And the answer is he doesn’t know. He feels like God has forgotten him. So, he does a very biblical thing that I want to recommend to you…he talks to himself…
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, -
Psalm 42:11
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (ESV)
Here the psalmist tells himself to look up and put his hope in God. We all need to address our souls in this same way. “Stop it with your circumstances and how you feel. Remind yourself of what is real. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. You will spend eternity worshipping him!”
I learned this lesson about talking to myself again in college. I was sleeping through class one morning, when the phone rang. I have no idea why, but I answered it. It was my teacher. He said three words I will never forget, “Blakey, stir thyself.” You’d better believe I bolted out of bed and ran to class as fast as I possibly could!
Later, I found out that my teacher was actually quoting
2 Timothy 1:6
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, (ESV)
. Paul reminds his disciple Timothy to stir up or fan into flame the gift of God within him. God had given Timothy a gift. Paul had even laid his hands on him commissioning him to use it. But Timothy still had to get himself going.
You may have read it in the Bible. Someone else may have even taught it to you. But at some point, you have to say it to yourself.
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