Preaching to ourselves. This is an idea we are currently discussing in the Girls’ Group Bible study (a Bible study with high school and college girls). As we study the book of Colossians together, we are learning who we are in Christ and how this changes how we think about ourselves. We are learning what God says about us, and that we can fill our minds with that truth rather than what the world around us or our own imaginations might be telling us.
So why do we need to preach to ourselves? We are bombarded every day by the messages that the world preaches to us. We see and hear it on social media, from the people around us, from television and radio, and probably most of all, from our own imaginations. To counter those messages, we need to saturate our minds and hearts with truth from God. How do we do that? The most obvious way is to be reading our Bibles regularly. Day by day, the truth of the Bible will begin to fill our minds, giving us God’s perspective on all that we see and hear. Pastor Rich preached this past week about this very thing from Psalm 19:
The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much pure gold;
Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Psalm 19:7-11
But is it really this simple? Just read our Bibles and automatically live a victorious Christian life? We might pick up and read our Bibles on any given day and not find anything that makes us feel that it is more desirable than gold. Does this mean we doing something wrong?
Probably not. But there are sections of the Bible that are not the easiest to read or find meaning in without studying more in depth. Pastor Rich suggested beginning in a Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) – you certainly can’t go wrong reading about Jesus! Or maybe one of the letters of the New Testament if you are already familiar with the Gospels. I have been somewhat obsessed with the book of Ephesians over the past year or so. Every time I read it, I am SURE that someone has added something to it that wasn’t there the last time I read. Or some verse becomes clear that was murky to me before.
Reading the Bible regularly is a first step in learning to preach to ourselves. This provides the ‘script’ that we need. As we read, we can pay attention to what God has to say about us, our salvation and our world. When I read each morning, I often jot something down in a journal, which helps to fix it in my mind. That gives me something to mull over during the day, providing the text for me to ‘preach’ to myself. It might be a truth about who God is, what I am in relation to Him (things like being forgiven completely, loved by my Creator, free to obey and not a slave to sin). I am also reading through the Bible this year, and so I get a bigger picture of the story of Scripture as I do this. The big story of the Bible brings such joy as I see how all the parts fit together and how God has not only worked in the past, but He also continues to work through eternity – and we will always have a part in that story!
But there is more to preaching to myself than accumulating truth about what God has done for me. I need to be reminded regularly whose I am – that my true identity is that I am God’s daughter, living for Him in the world He created, satisfied with who He created me to be rather than striving to be like someone else, able to resist sin, be kind to those who are not kind to me, find hope in situations that seem hopeless, find comfort in grief. These things are possible not because I am some kind of energized bunny, but because I am motivated by who God tells me I am and what He has done in and for me. I am rooted in Christ, filled in Him, free from slavery to sin, completely forgiven with my debt due to sin cancelled. What if I live with these truths in mind, rather than the divisive words of politics, the false ideas about identity, or the pressure to achieve some kind of popularity online? When I am with non-Christians, it helps to have my identity in Christ more solidly present in my mind as I am tempted to hide that identity in order to fit in. The truth that I start the day with and that is building up day by day because of that daily habit can then fill my mind when I am tempted to let myself believe something about myself or God that is a lie.
Step by step, day by day. Preach to yourself, taking your script from Scripture. Find a friend to hold you accountable and to talk over what you are learning. Keep a journal – it can be brief! – so that you can look back in a few months and see what you have learned and how God is blessing your time with Him. The more time you spend in God’s Word, the more time you will want to spend in God’s Word.
Author: Colleen Grogan
